Blizzard Entertainment has canceled this year’s fan convention BlizzCon, which was scheduled to take place in Anaheim, California in November. The company, now owned by Microsoft, announced the cancellation on Thursday but promised to bring the event back “in the coming years.”
“After careful consideration over the last year, we at Blizzard have made the decision not to hold BlizzCon in 2024.” Blizzard posted on its website. “This decision was not made lightly as BlizzCon remains a very special event for all of us and we know many of you are looking forward to it. While we are approaching this year differently and have tried different event formats in the past, we can be confident that we are as excited as ever to bring BlizzCon back to the market in the years to come.”
Instead, Blizzard expects to reveal details about its upcoming lineup of games – such as World of Warcraft: The War Within And Diablo 4Expansion of “Vessel of Hatred” – later this year, alone and at “other industry trade fairs” such as Gamescom, which takes place in Cologne from August 21st to 24th. Overwatch 2 eSports are still on the schedule for Dreamhack Dallas and Dreamhack Stockholm, Blizzard wrote personally World of Warcraft Events will be held to celebrate the game’s 30th anniversary. “While these events are different from BlizzCon, we are using all of our creativity and imagination to ensure they convey the same spirit of celebration and togetherness,” Blizzard said.
This year’s BlizzCon was set to be the second year in a row that the event would be held in person, after being canceled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The show went digital in 2021 and was canceled again in 2022. BlizzCon 2024 would also have been the first event since Microsoft completed its $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard. This deal took 21 months to complete. Months later, Microsoft laid off 1,900 employees in its gaming divisions, which also included significant cuts at Activision Blizzard.
BlizzCon is typically Blizzard’s big, eventful event where the company announces its biggest games and updates. Blizzard has the above World of Warcraft
Blizzard fans are understandably upset about the cancellation of the event. Aside from new game announcements, BlizzCon was also a rare gathering place for gamers – some of whom have been playing together online for years – to meet and mingle.
