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BlizzCon 2020 Cancelled, New Plans Being Worked On

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Unfortunately it seems we won't have a BlizzCon this year at all, not even in digital form, with Blizzard working on something for early next year. The esports events will continue, however, presumably as standalone entries.

Blizzard LogoBlizzCon (source)

Hello Blizzard community,

Several weeks ago, I shared an update about our uncertainty around holding BlizzCon this year. Since then, a lot has changed . . . and a lot also hasn’t changed. During this time, we’ve had many discussions about what holding a convention could look like in light of all the health and safety considerations we’d want to make. We’ve also talked about different paths we could take, and how each one could be complicated by fluctuations in national and local health guidelines in the months ahead. Ultimately, after considering our options, we’ve come to the very difficult decision to not have BlizzCon this year.

We’re feeling deeply disappointed about this decision, and imagine many of you will feel the same. I truly love BlizzCon, and I know that’s a sentiment shared by everyone at Blizzard. We will sorely miss connecting with so many of you at the convention and “recharging our geek batteries” this fall.

But we will meet again!

We’re talking about how we might be able to channel the BlizzCon spirit and connect with you in some way online, far less impacted by the state of health and safety protocols for mass in-person gatherings. We’d want to do this as soon as we could, but given that this is new-ish territory and the different factors involved, it will most likely be sometime early next year. BlizzCon is also a stage for big esports events in Blizzard games each year, so we’re also looking into alternatives for supporting some of the high-level competition that would normally take place at the show.

We’ll tell you more about our plans as they develop—but in the meantime, we hope to see you exploring the Shadowlands, hanging out in the Tavern, pushing the payload (do it!), and wherever else in the Blizzard universes you may roam.

Stay safe and stay well,

Saralyn Smith
Whirlwind Barbarian, Executive Producer of BlizzCon
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1 hour ago, BobTheHuman said:

Blizzcon in Virtual Ticket format only? So we pay for trailer reveals and Q&A?

The blue post indicates that. A virtual BlizzCon only. 
It would be cool if ticket owners get a chance to download a 2 day demo of the current Blizzcon games, because they usually had play areas to get immediate feedback.
QnA should be worked on. I don't think reading a chat with thousands of viewers posting questions is great. 

But if they don't even call the other plans "BlizzCon", we might just get some trailers and ingame events.

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Yeah, this is definitely the right decision given this world crisis, but maybe this will actually be a good thing for Blizzard as a company. Big events like these are EXPENSIVE. Blizzard could instead use that money to actually inject into the budget of their IPs.

Honestly, I think they should follow Nintendo's route with their Nintendo Directs. Accessible content shown digitally for everyone, easier to manage presentations, content presented in a more cohesive manner, and they could always host live Q&As later in streamings.

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38 minutes ago, Valhalen said:

.... Big events like these are EXPENSIVE. ...

I Bet that cancelling is more expensive as even't centers for big stuff like that need booking 2-3 year in advance with full payments. 
Unlikely they'll get a refund for the place.Sure thought they'll avoid the cost of running the rest!

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1 hour ago, Valhalen said:

Yeah, this is definitely the right decision given this world crisis, but maybe this will actually be a good thing for Blizzard as a company. Big events like these are EXPENSIVE. Blizzard could instead use that money to actually inject into the budget of their IPs.

It is expensive to organize, but as far as I'm concerned Blizzcon as a stand-alone convention was profitable every year since they raised ticket prices to the sky and started selling goodies and merchandise.

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24 minutes ago, Badadada said:

It is expensive to organize, but as far as I'm concerned Blizzcon as a stand-alone convention was profitable every year since they raised ticket prices to the sky and started selling goodies and merchandise.

Maybe for the company's philosophy it'll be something good. BlizzCon has been in a tight spot for the past years because of all the controversies. And Blizzard itself has been doing misstep afer misstep. Maybe with them settling down a bit things will get good; or I'm being too positive about this.

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Strange they didn't even plan an online event for this year. Perhaps they wouldn't have much to show anyway? There is too much silence surrounding D4 and Ow 2 (mostly the latter), something needs to be done. Especially for Ow 2, long periods without significant content, lack of news, it's really bad for a title that's supposed to be viable in e-sport.

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23 hours ago, Arcling said:

Strange they didn't even plan an online event for this year. Perhaps they wouldn't have much to show anyway? There is too much silence surrounding D4 and Ow 2 (mostly the latter), something needs to be done. Especially for Ow 2, long periods without significant content, lack of news, it's really bad for a title that's supposed to be viable in e-sport.

While that is true, as far as I could tell from the info we got about it OW2 is about the PvE experience and better graphics, nothing will change on the esport side of it right?

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30 minutes ago, Seksi said:

While that is true, as far as I could tell from the info we got about it OW2 is about the PvE experience and better graphics, nothing will change on the esport side of it right?

What might affect e-sport is the new pvp mode, Push and a hero. They are supposed to come with the Ow2 launch, albeit these will come for everyone, even if they aren't going to buy this expansion/sequel. Jeff said there won't be a new hero after Echo until Ow2. Lower interest in game will translate into lower viewership of league.

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