Breaking: BlizzCon 2020 Canceled, Blizzard Looking At Virtual Replacement
| Tags: General
| Author David Hollingsworth
Blizzard has announced today that BlizzCon 2020 will not go ahead — the publisher will look to host an event virtually in early 2021.
Blizzard continued to monitor the developing situation as we approach the (likely) November event. Some fans had hoped that maybe an event could go online-only, however, Blizzard has opted to cancel the event altogether at this time. The one good bit of news for fans is that Blizzard is working to host some form of event in 2020 in place of BlizzCon, the nature of which is still under discussion.
Saralyn Smith, Executive Producer of BlizzCon had this to say:
“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.“
With the logistics of BlizzCon not only being a huge convention, but also a global esports final for most of its titles, BlizzCon needs fans to travel from across the globe and that’s unlikely to happen in 2020.
Another Disappointment in 2020
Obviously for Blizzard fans, the news will come as another sour note in what has been a pretty tough 2020. With health & safety the primary concern, and the possibility of a virtual event taking place instead, fans might still get their yearly Blizzard-fest.
The only good news, it will likely make BlizzCon 2021 even more special and will give Blizzard a chance to go even bigger. If we could make one request, maybe we could see the return of events in South Korea or Europe, especially as no one knows what a post-COVID travel world looks like.
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David has written for games media outlets for the last ten years. With his first major esports role being with Esports News UK covering mostly UK League of Legends. David is also a member of the British Esports Association and is an advisor to them on World of Warcraft Esports. More recently David has worked for Esports Insider and Red Bull as an esports journalist.
David later became Editor at ESTNN and now leads the current team.