Blizzard Entertainment is taking a break from running its popular in-person fan event BlizzCon. Today, the game developer announced that BlizzCon will not be held during 2024.
In its blog post, Blizzard stated:
This decision was not made lightly as BlizzCon remains a very special event for all of us, and we know many of you look forward to it. While we’re approaching this year differently and as we have explored different event formats in the past, rest assured that we are just as excited as ever to bring BlizzCon back in future years.
Blizzard finally brought back BlizzCon as a live in-person event at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California in November 2023. It was the first in-person BlizzCon since 2019, thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic. Blizzard did hold a virtual BlizzCon event in 2021.
Today's announcement does state that Blizzard has plans to hold a series of in-person events around the world to celebrate the 30th anniversary of its Warcraft game franchise. It added:
While these events are distinct from BlizzCon, we’re harnessing all of our creativity and imagination to ensure that they carry the same spirit of celebration and togetherness.
Blizzard also has plans to celebrate the launches of two upcoming projects in 2024. One is the next World of Warcraft expansion pack, The War Within, and the other is the release of the first Diablo IV expansion pack Vessel of Hatred. The developer plans to hold events at a number of video game trade shows, including Gamescom in August. It will also make some announcements during a number of unnamed gaming streaming events.
Blizzard is now owned by Microsoft, and in January a number of team members were laid off as part of Microsoft's 1,900 job cuts in its gaming division. It also canceled the development of its unnamed survival game that was first announced in 2022. However, Blizzard is hiring for a number of top positions for an unannounced game.
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