After two consecutive years of the BlizzCon fanfest getting canceled due to the pandemic, Blizzard’s planned online replacement, BlizzConline, was scrapped Tuesday, too.
The gamemaker announced the news on the BlizzCon website without specifying a reason for axing the scheduled February event. No replacement date was given.
The statement added, “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.”
The move to cancel BlizzConline comes with parent company Activision Blizzard Inc. dealing with the aftermath of sexual-misconduct allegations. Last week, the company parted ways with more than 20 employees and disciplined another 20-plus over claims of workplace discrimination and sexual harassment.
BlizzCon, traditionally held in Anaheim, Calif., began in 2005, when around 4,000 people attended. The most recent edition, in November 2018, drew more than 40,000 attendees.
Blizzard Entertainment is the maker of such games as Overwatch, Hearthstone, the StarCraft series and the Warcraft series.
–Field Level Media
