We've got news from Blizzard today about the future of BlizzCon as the ongoing pandemic continues and restrictions change.
Blizzard has decided to not hold a physical BlizzCon this year and instead hold an event like BlizzConline early next year. No real details have been announced yet but they have confirmed plans for an online show and some smaller in-person gatherings. While calling it a global event, it seems like we could have mini-BlizzCons all over the world!
Read on for Saralyn Smith's full announcement.
Quote From Saralyn Smith Greetings Blizzard community,
I hope you’re all staying safe and well. 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. We know some of you might be wondering about your own plans to potentially cross the country—not to mention oceans—and meet your friends, family, and fellow community members in California, so today, we wanted to give you a heads-up that we’ve decided we will not be holding BlizzCon this year.
Building an in-person BlizzCon is an epic and complex affair that takes many months of preparation—not just for us, but also for the many talented production partners, esports pros, hosts, entertainers, artists, and other collaborators we team up with locally and globally to put all of the pieces together. 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.
But we don’t want to let too long go by before we connect with everyone again. So in the meantime, we’re planning a global event for the early part of next year, combining an online show along the lines of our recent BlizzConline with smaller in-person gatherings, and we’ll share more as our plans come together.
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.
–Saralyn Smith, Executive Producer of BlizzCon
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Comments
I wouldn't be surprised if BlizzConline continues even after the pandemic is over. It's so much more affordable for them, they don't need to organise a massive venue like Anaheim and all those extras. Lets just hope they keep it free like this year's event
I'd love to see the numbers on it because I feel like at this point, Blizzard makes some pretty solid bank with in-person BlizzCon and you have to consider the effect a huge in-person event has compared to online - I feel like there was more coverage during a real BlizzCon from outside outlets; that spills over into less money needing to be spent on marketing potentially.
Ticket sales almost certainly cover the cost of the convention itself though with them increasing almost every year. The excitement of being there and willingness to spend on the experience also likely gets people spending more than they would normally on merch had it been online only (idk, I find online merch kinda not as hype).
I think this hybrid we're going to see early next year is super awesome and is a good indication of what is to come. The pandemic has let them change the model of BlizzCon without anyone being upset about it since everyone is quite understanding in-person just wouldn't have worked last year. Maybe do the big convention but then have smaller, satellite parties around the world at the same time so everyone could have a chance at having some kind of BlizzCon experience. Anyone outside of the Americas kinda gets rekt when it comes to BlizzCon.
I doubt that the previous Blizzcons didn't make any profits (Tickets, Virtual Tickets, Merch, greater advertisement range, more hype -> more pre-orders etc). In this case there is no way they would stop the physical Blizzcons.
Last I read (granted it's been many years since this was published), but they said lose quite a bit on Blizzcon.
https://www.escapistmagazine.com/v2/blizzards-agdc-keynote-we-lose-money-on-blizzcon/
Yeah, 11 years is a lot. Blizzard released 3 new IPs in that time and the ammount of Blizzard fans and the general gaming audience also increased a lot. So I don't think that Article is a good reference point for today.
Well Blizzconline was in February 2021, so makes sense