Blizzard Cancels BlizzCon 2022
After canceling BlizzCon 2021 and announcing plans for an event to be held in early 2022, Blizzard Entertainment announced this week that it will not be3 holding that event either. It's put a "pause on planning the previously announced BlizzConline event," the company announced on Tuesday, and will instead focus on supporting development teams and working on the games and experiences it already has planned. This shift in strategy notably was announced amidst an ongoing lawsuit against Activision Blizzard as well as other related investigations.
No date was set for 2022's iteration of a BlizzCon event, but it won't be happening now regardless. Blizzard announced its revised plans – or lack of BlizzCon plans – for next year in a post on the company's site.
"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," Blizzard said. "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."
Blizzard also talked about how much the community and things in general have changed over the course of BlizzCons ever since the first one was held 16 years ago. It said it plans to make the future events, "safe, welcoming, and inclusive," though how those goals will be implemented wasn't said considering operations are at a pause right now.
"Whatever the event looks like in the future, we also need to ensure that it feels as safe, welcoming, and inclusive as possible," Blizzard said. "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."
Talking about future iterations of BlizzCon being safer and more inclusive was as close as the post got to referencing any of the current happenings within Blizzard. While it's reasonable to imagine that the time saved on planning will indeed be spent focusing on games, the ongoing lawsuit and investigations would likely make it difficult to promote an event focused on the company being scrutinized as thoroughly as Blizzard is right now.
For those who are still looking forward to announcements about games like Overwatch 2, Diablo IV, and other Blizzard projects, the company said it'll still have more announcements and updates for games to share even without a BlizzCon or BlizzConline happening next year.