Blizzard has announced the return of its fan-favourite conference BlizzCon.
It marks a welcome return for the event, which hasn’t taken place in full-force since 2019. While Blizzard did host a BlizzCon in 2021, it was forced to take place entirely online due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and was therefore a much more muted affair compared to previous years.
While the company did originally plan on hosting a BlizzCon in 2022, it was ultimately cancelled in order to make sure that the event “feels as safe, welcoming, and inclusive as possible.”
The somewhat low-key announcement was made via an end of year update post on Blizzard’s website. The update is short on details, with the announcement being made via the appointment of April McKee as executive producer of BlizzCon.
“Yes, we’re bringing BlizzCon back,” said Blizzard president Mike Ybarra, promising “more on that early next year!” No further information about when BlizzCon might take place, or even when we might hear more, was revealed in the post.
The last in-person BlizzCon took place in 2019, and not only saw the announcement of both Diablo 4 and Overwatch 2, but also hosted the final World Championship for StarCraft 2’s esports scene.
With more and more in-person events returning, it makes sense that BlizzCon would make a reappearance sooner or later. However, Blizzard is in a remarkably different position now than it was in 2019. Since then, Activision Blizzard as a whole has been rocked by a series of allegations of sexual harassment, discrimination, and workplace misconduct at the company. Given the serious nature of these allegations, they’re likely to form a dark cloud over the festivities.
There’s also the matter of the ongoing drama around Microsoft’s proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard. While Microsoft continues to project confidence that the deal will go through, the merger has run into repeated opposition. Most notably from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), who earlier this month released a press release earlier this month revealing its intention to block the deal. With such tension around Microsoft’s proposed merger, it remains to be seen if they will have a presence at the next BlizzCon.
In other gaming news, Amazon has revealed that it is redesigning some skins in Lost Ark in order to “better fit western norms.”
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