BlizzCon 2024 Canceled: Decision to Forego Annual Event
Blizzard Entertainment, now under Microsoft's ownership, has announced the cancellation of this year's BlizzCon, the fan convention typically held in Anaheim, California in November. Despite this, the company assured fans that the event will return in the coming years.
BlizzCon Cancelation Decision:
"After careful deliberation spanning the past year, Blizzard has announced the decision to forego hosting BlizzCon in 2024. Recognizing the significance of BlizzCon to our community, this choice was made with considerable thought.
Despite the absence of BlizzCon this year, we remain deeply committed to its future return."
Blizzard has decided to cancel BlizzCon 2024 pic.twitter.com/mxzN0hqka9
— esports (@esports) April 25, 2024
Source: Twitter/esports
Alternatives and Future Plans:
Instead, Blizzard plans to unveil details about its upcoming game lineup, such as World of Warcraft: The War Within and the Vessel of Hatred expansion for Diablo 4, later in the year.
These announcements will occur both independently and at various industry events like Gamescom, scheduled for August 21 to 24 in Cologne, Germany. Additionally, Overwatch 2 esports events are slated for Dreamhack Dallas and Dreamhack Stockholm.
while in-person celebrations for World of Warcraft's 30th anniversary are also in the works.
Background and Context
BlizzCon 2024 would have marked the first event since Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion, which took nearly two years to finalize. Shortly after, Microsoft laid off 1,900 employees across its gaming divisions, including significant cuts to Activision Blizzard.
BlizzCon is typically Blizzard's major event where they unveil their biggest games and updates. This year, they had plans for expansions to World of Warcraft and Diablo 4. However, there may not have been much else to showcase after the cancellation of their unnamed survival game alongside the layoffs.
This survival game was announced in 2022 as a new franchise, the first since Overwatch in 2016. It was reportedly in development for six years before being scrapped, according to Bloomberg. Additionally, Overwatch 2's planned story mode, Hero Missions, was canceled last year, with its Story Missions also in doubt.
This could have left little else to headline the show.
Fan Reaction
Understandably, Blizzard fans are upset about the event's cancellation. Apart from new game announcements, BlizzCon has been a rare opportunity for players, some of whom have been gaming together online for years, to meet and gather.
Read more such news on techinsighttoday
Thank you so much for reading.