Blizzard Entertainment has officially cancelled BlizzCon 2021 due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
The studio today (May 27) shared the news via a blog post. Saralyn Smith, Executive Producer of the annual event, revealed through the announcement that this year’s in-person edition would not be possible as “the status of the pandemic fluctuates around the globe”.
Smith went on to explain that planning and executing a BlizzCon event is “an epic and complex affair that takes many months of preparation” involving its team, production partners, eSports pros, entertainers and more.
Given that BlizzCon typically takes place in November, Smith said, “We’re not past the point where we’d be able to develop the kind of event we’d want.”
Instead, Blizzard has begun “planning a global event for the early part of next year”, which will combine smaller, in-person events with elements of online shows “along the lines of our recent BlizzConline”. A date for the planned 2022 event has yet to be confirmed.
This marks the second BlizzCon event to be cancelled due to the pandemic. BlizzCon 2020 was meant to take place in November that year, but it was eventually nixed in favour of a virtual event dubbed BlizzConline, which took place in February 2021.
At BlizzConline, Blizzard announced a remaster of its seminal 2000 game, Diablo II. Now dubbed Diablo II: Resurrected, the remake will be released later this year on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S and Nintendo Switch.
Diablo II: Resurrected will include 4K resolution, Dolby Surround 7.1 sound support, 27 minutes of remade cinematics, remade graphics and more.
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