The years without BlizzCon will soon be over. The big trade fair from Blizzard will likely return and once again attract you to America.
There are now quite a few large gaming conventions – but hardly any has had as loyal fans in recent years as BlizzCon. Due to the Covid pandemic, BlizzCon was canceled in recent years and it was even uncertain whether it would ever return. But now there is relief: The big convention for all Blizzard fans will likely return next year.
What was said? In an interview with the LA Times, Mike Ybarra from Blizzard spoke about the plans for BlizzCon. He said:
We previously announced that we would pause BlizzCon while we consider a new edition, with which we will return to a live event and that allows us to celebrate the community. We recently hired a new BlizzCon head, April McKee, who is working hard on this plan. We aim to bring BlizzCon back in 2023.
This makes it quite clear: Next year, all Blizzard fans can probably expect a new edition of BlizzCon.
What is BlizzCon? For many, BlizzCon is primarily a major promotional event where Blizzard talks about planned and current games. Major stage shows present cinematics and trailers and unveil new games.
For real fans who are more deeply interested in their games or the whole surrounding, BlizzCon is also always an opportunity to learn more details. There are often “Q&A” sessions with developers or extensive interviews, for example, with voice actors. For others, BlizzCon is an occasion to find like-minded people and hold a guild meeting.
What happened to BlizzCon? Due to the Covid pandemic and the resulting contact restrictions, BlizzCon has been canceled in recent times. Temporarily, it was replaced by a “BlizzConline”, a purely online version of BlizzCon, but already in 2022, the decision was made against such an event – there was simply too little to show and they wanted to take more time and focus resources primarily on game development before organizing another event.
In recent years, however, BlizzCon has somewhat fallen from grace. This was mainly because many felt that there were hardly any major new announcements. In addition, there were certain mishaps, such as the botched announcement of Diablo Immortal with the now-infamous phrase “Don’t you guys have phones?”
At that time, Blizzard had significantly alienated its predominantly PC-affine community and was even booed – a first at BlizzCon.
Is there already a date for BlizzCon 2023? No, not yet. Traditionally, BlizzCon has always taken place at the end of October or the beginning of November during the years of the live event. If Blizzard wants to adhere to this schedule again, we would have to wait over a year until BlizzCon 2023. But that also gives the developers a bit more time to perhaps prepare some gaming highlights…
Are you looking forward to the return of BlizzCon? Or do you think that a gaming convention of a single developer is outdated or simply out of date?
