Another major event for gamers is canceled in 2020. BlizzCon 2020 has been canceled, something new will probably come next year.
The current “Corona situation” continues to hold the world’s countries in a chokehold, albeit in varying degrees, even after several months. Various measures worldwide ensure that large events like gaming fairs look rather bleak.
Blizzard has also considered whether a BlizzCon in November makes any sense at all. They have now come to the conclusion: No, there will not be a BlizzCon 2020.
What was said? In an official statement, Saralyn Smith, the Executive Producer of BlizzCon, announced that there will be no BlizzCon in 2020. She justifies the decision like this:
(…) We had many discussions about what hosting an event might look like in light of all the necessary health and safety measures. We also discussed various paths we could take and how each of those could be complicated by changes to national and local guidelines in the coming months.
Ultimately, after weighing our options, we came to the difficult decision not to hold a BlizzCon this year.
Online alternative to BlizzCon?
What is coming instead? In the same post, Saralyn Smith talked about a possible alternative. Internally, there are initial considerations and rough plans for an alternative event that would take place completely online.
However, since this is uncharted territory for the organizers of BlizzCon and requires a lot of lead time, it would most likely take place no earlier than early 2021. By then, the next major release, namely that of World of Warcraft: Shadowlands, will already have happened. However, there could be information about Diablo IV or Overwatch 2 there.
Does this also have advantages? Definitely. BlizzCon has traditionally been at the beginning of November and thus a more or less fixed date. A digital event could allow Blizzard to schedule it for a time when there are truly many exciting things to report and present. That could significantly increase the value of the alternative event.
More information on this will be available in the coming months when Blizzard further develops these plans. However, anyone who was looking forward to a BlizzCon in November – whether live on-site or comfortably at home in front of the computer – is left empty-handed.
Do you think it’s good that Blizzard is skipping BlizzCon? Or do you think by then the entire “Corona incident” will be long gone?
