Almost a year after Blizzard Entertainment canceled Blizzcon 2020, the company announced on May 26 that the in-person event, Blizzcon 2021, is again being shelved. In lieu of the COVID-19 pandemic, plans for the California-based event are cancelled, Blizzard stated in the announcement.
“As guidelines in California around in-person gatherings continue to evolve and the status of the pandemic fluctuates around the globe, the teams across Blizzard have been discussing what this means for one of the events we miss the most: BlizzCon,” Saralyn Smith, Executive Producer of BlizzCon said.
An update on BlizzCon: https://t.co/XLuqKWKJt5 pic.twitter.com/DQkzOMBKwJ
— Blizzard Entertainment (@Blizzard_Ent) May 26, 2021
Smith goes on to explain that hosting Blizzcon is a complex process; for her team as well as the collaborators that help finalize the event at a local and production level.
“The ongoing complexities and uncertainties of the pandemic have impacted our ability to properly move forward on many of these fronts and, ultimately, we’re now past the point where we’d be able to develop the kind of event we’d want to create for you in November,” Smith said.
A cancelled Blizzcon 2021
Blizzard plans to hold an event that will be open to a global audience in early 2022. This may also include in-person events and gatherings. However, the 2022 Blizzcon adjacent event will still have an online element. The current game lineup that Blizzard announced includes Overwatch 2, Diablo 2: Resurrected, Diablo Immortal and Diablo 4. The announcement also stated that the company will share future plans as the event comes together and pandemic regulations change.
“We very much look forward to celebrating with you all again. Until then, we’ll see you in Azeroth, Outland, Sanctuary and all the other worlds we call home,” Smith said.
In February of 2020, Blizzard held Blizzconline, after the same announcement almost a year ago. The in-person event was to be held at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California. In place of the cancelled Blizzcon 2021, the upcoming event should keep the same game announcements, community and developer panels as previous installments of Blizzcon.
