Blizzard has announced it will not hold its annual BlizzCon event in 2024, but promised the event will return in future years.
In a statement to press, Blizzard failed to share the reason for the cancellation of the event, though it said the decision was "not made lightly." Additionally, the company plans to participate in other industry events throughout the year instead:
Over the next few months, we’ll be sharing more details about our launches coming later this year, including World of Warcraft: The War Within and Diablo IV's first expansion, Vessel of Hatred. To celebrate these upcoming releases and to bring our communities together in new and special ways, we will soon share some exciting plans for other industry trade shows and conventions like Gamescom. We can’t wait to tell you more about those plans soon. We’re also looking forward to the Overwatch Champions Series’ stops at both Dreamhack Dallas and Dreamhack Stockholm. And we’re thrilled to be planning multiple, global, in-person events to commemorate the 30th anniversary of Warcraft, which will be held in addition to the in-game celebrations across our Warcraft games throughout 2024. 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.
This news comes just as BlizzCon was getting back on its feet. The event was fully canceled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, then returned briefly as a digital show in 2021 before going on hiatus again in 2022. Last year, BlizzCon was held again in-person for the first time in four years.
While BlizzCon's cancellation may come as a shock to fans, it makes some amount of sense. BlizzCon is traditionally where Blizzard unveils all its major announcements ahead of the coming year, but 2024 would have almost certainly had a thin slate. The next World of Warcraft expansion, The War Within, is planned for release sometime in the summer or fall of this year, ahead of when BlizzCon usually occurs. Diablo 4 does have an upcoming expansion planned for release in late 2024, but it's entirely possible that's slated to happen ahead of BlizzCon as well, leaving Blizzard with little new to reveal on that front either. With its upcoming survival game canceled, that would leave Overwatch 2 and Hearthstone to carry the bulk of the conference's major reveals, and neither game seems poised to sit in the hot seat for an entire conference.
What's more, Blizzard was hit by layoffs earlier this year; it was one of multiple divisions impacted by the cutting of 1,900 staff from Microsoft's video game arm in January. With Activision Blizzard still getting its feet under it following its acquisition last year amid a climate of wider industry budget cuts and layoffs, it makes sense not to spend a ton of money on a conference. What is less clear is what BlizzCon will look like when it does return - now under Microsoft's oversight.
Microsoft will hold its Q3 earnings call later today, which may explain the timing of the BlizzCon news.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to [email protected].
