Big, and pretty sad news. While we knew for a while that the actual BlizzCon 2021 won’t happen (if it did, it would most likely take place next weekend), we were promised another online-only event in February (just like the one we had earlier this year instead of BlizzCon 2020). Right now it looks like that won’t happen either. Blizzard wants to “reimagine” BlizzCon and make some changes to the event’s formula.
I would honestly be very surprised if all the recent harassment lawsuits had nothing to do with it. But maybe it’s for the better – while iconic, the event’s formula became a little outdated and it could use a refresh. Let’s hope that they come up with something better… after they sort everything out.
All of that said, we should still get all the usual game updates we normally would – just not during a single, big event. For Hearthstone, it most likely means that the next expansion will be announced in early March instead of February – last time we had a pretty long wait between announcement and actual release.
Read the official statement below:
To the Blizzard community,
We’ve decided to take a step back and pause on planning the previously announced BlizzConline event scheduled for early next year. This was a tough decision for all of us to make, but it’s the right one.
Any BlizzCon event takes every single one of us to make happen, an entire-company effort, fueled by our desire to share what we create with the community we care about so much. At this time, we feel the energy it would take to put on a show like this is best directed towards supporting our teams and progressing development of our games and experiences.
Additionally, we would also like to take the time to reimagine what a BlizzCon event of the future could look like. The first BlizzCon was held 16 years ago, and so much has changed in the time since—most notably, the multiple ways in which players and communities can come together and feel like they are a part of something bigger. Whatever the event looks like in the future, we also need to ensure that it feels as safe, welcoming, and inclusive as possible. We’re committed to continual communication with our players, and we see BlizzCon playing a big role in that going forward. We’re excited about what we’ll do with the event when we revisit it in the future.
One more thing we wanted to make clear: even though we aren’t holding BlizzConline in February, we’ll still be making announcements and updates for our games. We’re proud of our teams and the progress they’ve made across our games. We have a lot of exciting upcoming news and releases to share with you. You’ll continue hearing about those through our franchise channels, with the talented people on the BlizzCon team playing a part in supporting these efforts.
We’ll miss seeing you, but don’t worry. We’ll be back together soon.
So, they cancelled Blizzcon so that they wouldn’t be yelled at about the allegations? Seems like a bad decision, people’s opinions of Blizzard are already declining lol
It could be. or….
They don’t have anything to showcase for other than the next Hearthstone Expansion.
They’ve been busy patching WoW – Shadowlands, along with removing ‘sensitive’ contents that has sparked outrage from the lawsuit.
Diablo IV is still too early, maybe 2023. The same goes with Overwatch 2, and even harder with it’s longtime devs quit the job. There’s still Diablo Immortal, but I doubt people would love it.
But there’s the truth, Blizard has truly failed as a big game company to produce games, and the trend is declining even more.
IMO, when you have nothing to show, it’s still better to cancel a big event such as Blizzcon, even if you have to cover it up with BS nonsense like “Reimagine Blizzcon”. LOL