Bad news for fans of Blizzard’s annual showcase BlizzCon. The company has announced that they will not be holding the annual event this year due to a heavy release schedule from the company this year.
“We’re excited to be showcasing Blizzard eSports on a truly global stage this year. We’re also heavily focused on getting Diablo III, [World of Warcraftexpansion] Mists of Pandaria, and [Starcraft II expansion] Heart of the Swarm into players’ hands as soon as possible. In light of our jam-packed schedule, we’ve decided to hold the next BlizzCon in 2013.”
“Yeah it’s a bit disappointing because we all really do enjoy being able to ‘open the doors’ so to speak. But, it is an enormous effort by all employees, including our game designers and artists, not to mention customer support and quality assurance, PR, our business departments, and *hot breath on fingernails & shirt rub* Community & eSports to make a BlizzCon happen. In a year when we’re working to release multiple titles (knock on wood) it makes sense to focus our efforts. Also with multiple game releases we just wonder if we’d be at a point with any of them where we’d have anything really big or new or cool to talk about.”
BlizzCon has been held almost every year since 2005 (2006 was the other year to not host a BlizzCon event). The show is the company’s annual event to open up to the media. The show usually features presentations by Blizzard employees, tournaments, contests, and hands-on time with their upcoming games. The company is putting the finishing touches on Diablo 3 as well as preparing anew expansion for thier power house title, World Of Warcraft. Blizzard is also at work designing a new strategy game called Blizzard DOTA as well as an MMO currently titled Titan. They also have a second StarCraft II expansion pack called Legacy of the Void on the way.
