Blizzard has canceled its yearly BlizzCon convention due to concerns about the COVID-19 pandemic, the organization announced today.
The decision comes close to two months after the developer sent out a release saying it was concerned about the viability of hosting the event shortly following the U.S. declaring a state of emergency.
“Since then, a lot has changed… and a lot also hasn’t changed,” BlizzCon executive producer Saralyn Smith said. “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.”
Blizzard was quick to adjust its workflow once the pandemic reached the U.S. It didn’t take long for Blizzard developers and employees to start working from home on upcoming games like Overwatch 2 and World of Warcraft’s new expansion, Shadowlands. But fans won’t get a chance to meet in person for Blizzard’s end-of-year event showing off all of the work its developers have done.
In an attempt to make up for lost time, though, Smith said Blizzard is working to potentially do some online event to at least in part make up for the company’s inability to host something in person.
“We’re talking about how we might be able to channel the BlizzCon spirit and connect with you in some way online, far less impacted by the state of health and safety protocols for mass in-person gatherings,” Smith said. “We’d want to do this as soon as we could, but given that this is new-ish territory and the different factors involved, it will most likely be sometime early next year.”
Plans for any sort of digital-only BlizzCon-like event weren’t officially announced. Based on Smith’s comments, however, it’s safe to assume that Blizzard fans will be getting some announcement in the future detailing a BlizzCon consolation event.
