BlizzCon 2024 has been canceled

Photo by Joe Scarnici / Getty Images

Blizzard has announced it volition not clasp BlizzCon, the publisher’s yearly instrumentality convention, this year. “After cautious information implicit the past year, we astatine Blizzard person made the determination not to clasp BlizzCon successful 2024,” Blizzard wrote connected its website.

Instead of BlizzCon, Blizzard wrote that it would beryllium holding other, smaller events passim the twelvemonth and mentioned participating successful different commercialized shows, specified arsenic Gamescom. Additionally, 2024 marks the 30th day of World of Warcraft, with Blizzard stating that it’s readying “multiple, global, in-person events” arsenic good arsenic sharing updates for WoW’s 10th expansion, The War Within, and Diablo IV’s first expansion, Vessel of Hatred.

Despite this year’s cancellation, Blizzard says the lawsuit volition instrumentality successful the future: “While we’re approaching this twelvemonth otherwise and arsenic we person explored antithetic lawsuit formats successful the past, remainder assured that we are conscionable arsenic excited arsenic ever to bring BlizzCon backmost successful aboriginal years.”

Last twelvemonth was a engaged 1 for the World of Warcraft and Overwatch 2 publisher. It formally closed its acquisition by Microsoft to the tune of $68.7 billion, fought ineligible battles against said acquisition in the US and the UK, and reorganized the company’s C-suite with CEO Bobby Kotick leaving aft much than 30 years astatine the helm.

Though BlizzCon has been astir since 2005, it has been canceled a fig of times since then. In 2020, the covid-19 pandemic necessitated BlizzCon’s cancellation with the lawsuit returning in an online format. However, successful 2022, BlizzCon was canceled again amidst state and national workplace harassment lawsuits. The lawsuit returned erstwhile again successful 2023.

The cancelation of BlizzCon 2024 comes arsenic different notable video crippled event, E3, yet gave up the shade past year and amidst a video crippled manufacture grappling with unprecedented layoffs and fiscal struggles. Earlier this year, Microsoft laid disconnected 1,900 employees crossed Activision Blizzard and Xbox, 1 of the largest azygous video crippled manufacture layoff events of the past 2 years.