Blizzard revealed today that the big annual convention celebrating its popular game franchises such as World of Warcraft, Diablo, and Overwatch has been canceled. Instead of the weekend-long event usually packed with reveals and announcements, Blizzard plans to host multiple in-person events around the world to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Warcraft.
The party will return
Despite the cancellation, Blizzard does confirm that it plans to bring BlizzCon back in future years. The company also plans to attend various trade shows and conventions throughout 2024 such as Gamescom. Even though Blizzard usually attends them anyway, it does make sense not to host a big event when there probably really isn’t anything *new* to announce this year.
This is also the first year after following the massive $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft. It’s quite possible that Papa Microsoft just doesn’t have enough time to Microsoft-ify the convention that is normally held in November.
One of Blizzard’s flagship franchises, Warcraft, is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. To celebrate, Blizzard is still planning to host multiple global in-person events as well as in-game celebrations throughout its Warcraft games.
A year of big expansions
At the end of the day, this makes a lot of sense. Even without a BlizzCon 2024, this is a massive year for Blizzard, primarily because of its upcoming expansions for its biggest franchises. The now two-decades-old MMORPG World of Warcraft is set to see the launch of World of Warcraft: The War Within, a major expansion that is the first of three designed to reignite the MMORPG as part of The Worldsoul Saga.
Also scheduled for release this year is the first-ever expansion of Action RPG Diablo 4 with Vessel of Hatred. Scheduled for late 2024, Vessel of Hatred introduces a completely new class never seen before in the Diablo franchise as players adventure to a new playable region called Nahantu, a mystical jungle.
As a long-time Blizzard fan who plays all its games pretty regularly, I’m happy to see Blizzcon skip a year if it means these very promising and important expansions get some extra love to make them all they can be for release. We can throw the party next year.
