Image: Blizzard Entertainment
Blizzard has cancelled BlizzCon 2024, instead opting to deliver game announcements at other events throughout the year.
Blizzard Entertainment will not bring back its annual BlizzCon fan convention this year. The games publisher announced today that BlizzCon 2024 has been officially cancelled, “after careful consideration over the last year,” as the company looks to approach this year, “differently.” Instead of hosting one big event to deliver game announcements to its fans, Blizzard will instead spread those announcements throughout the year via other events like Gamescom.
BlizzCon 2024 is cancelled, to return ‘in future years’
BlizzCon 2024 has been officially cancelled, despite the company making a big deal of BlizzCon 2023 being its first in-person event since 2019. Blizzard had previously skipped BlizzCon in 2020 due to the pandemic, took the event online in 2021 and then cancelled it again in 2022. Much like E3, it’s been a real rollercoaster for BlizzCon attendees over the last few years.
In an update shared on its website, Blizzard announced:
After careful consideration over the last year, we at Blizzard have made the decision not to hold BlizzCon in 2024. 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.
If you’re still looking forward to big updates coming to your favourite Blizzard games, however, there’s still hope on that front. Blizzard confirmed that it would 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.” These seem to be the two biggest content drops the company has in the works for this year, so one can safely expect more news on them soon.
Instead of taking its announcements to BlizzCon, Blizzard instead has, “exciting plans,” for other games industry trade shows and conventions like Gamescom this year. There will also be, “multiple, global, in-person events to commemorate the 30th anniversary of Warcraft,” though we’ll have to wait to get more details on what these events entail. It’s likely that BlizzCon will return in 2025 or 2026 - when the company might have more new content to announce, instead of just sharing updates to its existing titles.