The eSports and games summit is the latest to succumb to the coronavirus
For the fans who were hoping that Blizzard would move forward with this year’s BlizzCon, it won’t happen. The company has announced its decision to cancel its annual convention due to concerns regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. Today’s announcement follows up a release sent two months ago by the developer in which it was indicated that there were high concerns about the possibility of hosting the event right after the US declared a state of emergency two months ago.
“Since then, a lot has changed… and a lot also hasn’t changed,” said Saralyn Smith, BlizzCon’s executive producer. “During this time, we’ve had many discussions about what holding a convention could look like in light of all the health and safety considerations we’d want to make. We’ve also talked about different paths we could take, and how each one could be complicated by fluctuations in national and local health guidelines in the months ahead.”
Blizzard was quick on adjusting to the new conditions brought by the coronavirus pandemic. Developers and other collaborators started to work from home on upcoming games like Overwatch 2 and World of Warcraft’s new expansion: Shadowlands. Now, fans are not going to be able to meet in person this year for the usual end-of-the-year event in which all advancements made by developers are shown.
To fill the void left by this cancelation, Smith added that Blizzard is exploring the option of running some kind of online event to compensate at least a little. “We’re talking about how we might be able to channel the BlizzCon spirit and connect with you in some way online, far less impacted by the state of health and safety protocols for mass in-person gatherings,” Smith said. “We’d want to do this as soon as we could but given that this is new-ish territory and the different factors involved, it will most likely be sometime early next year.”
