Blizzard Reveals It's Skipping BlizzCon 2024, Focusing On Other Events

Blizzard has cancelled BlizzCon 2024, but it will be back.

By Ricky Frech

Last year, developer Blizzard Entertainment brought back in-person attendance to its annual BlizzCon event. The company pulled out most of its big guns, including a new World of Warcraft expansion reveal and players' initial look at the first Diablo 4 expansion. As big of a success as the event was for Blizzard, it's an expensive endeavor and not one the company should take lightly. That's doubly true after the relatively recent layoffs, which partially led to the cancellation of the survival game Blizzard was working on. With that in mind, Blizzard announced today that it's skipping BlizzCon 2024 in favor of having a presence at several smaller events.

BlizzCon 2024 Cancelled

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In its statement, Blizzard said, "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."

For long-time Blizzard fans, this announcement isn't totally surprising. The event has been cancelled four other times in the past. Obviously, COVID-19 played a major role in the event being skipped in 2020 and 2022, but Blizzard also skipped BlizzCon in 2006 and 2012. In 2006, Blizzard never provided a reason behind the skip, but in 2012, the team said that it had multiple announced projects in the works and didn't have anything "new or cool to talk about."

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While Blizzard isn't saying that about this year's event yet, it seems likely. Remember, the team announced Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred and World of Warcraft: The War Within. Both of those should be out this year, with The War Within likely launching at the end of the summer. Plus, the WoW team revealed that it's concurrently working on two more expansions that will fit into the Worldsoul Saga that The War Within is kicking off. Blizzard might have more projects in the works, but those are probably much further out and won't be announced this year.

It's also worth noting that Blizzard isn't going completely dark in 2024. In the blog, the team noted all of the events they're going to this year, saying, "To celebrate these upcoming releases and to bring our communities together in new and special ways, we will soon share some exciting plans for other industry trade shows and conventions like Gamescom. We can't wait to tell you more about those plans soon. We're also looking forward to the Overwatch Champions Series' stops at both Dreamhack Dallas and Dreamhack Stockholm. And we're thrilled to be planning multiple, global, in-person events to commemorate the 30th anniversary of Warcraft, which will be held in addition to the in-game celebrations across our Warcraft games throughout 2024. While these events are distinct from BlizzCon, we're harnessing all of our creativity and imagination to ensure that they carry the same spirit of celebration and togetherness."

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