Blizzard Is Too Busy for BlizzCon This Year, Opts to Skip it Until 2013

Not unlike the hardworking parent who regrettably has to break the news to their adoring children that this year, with so many important things going on at work, they won't be able to take the kids to Disneyland like they'd done every year prior, Blizzard today tried to very gently break it to the company's most enthusiastic fans that no, there won't be a BlizzCon in 2012.

The reason? It's apparently as simple as there just being too much stuff going on with the company these days. In addition to the (eventual) releases of Diablo III, the World of Warcraft expansion Mists of Pandaria, and Starcraft II expansion Heart of the Swarm in 2012, the company also announced that it plans to hold a competitive gaming event it calls the 2012 Battle.net World Championship, an event that it describes as "a major global eSports event featuring some of the best pro-gaming competition in the world" that will feature competition in both Starcraft II (naturally) and World of Warcraft's Arena battles. That event will take place somewhere in the rather large continent of Asia in 2012. For those taking bets on where, put me down for a sawbuck on South Korea.

Amusingly, most of Blizzard's announcement focused on the Battle.net World Championship and the many, many titles Blizzard plans to release this year, as if to try and soften the blow to any die-hard fans who were eagerly anticipating the opportunity to finally have that ridiculous Pandaren costume they've been trotting around for the last few years really mean something. It's like the aforementioned parent trying to salve the wounds of their heartbroken brood by telling them they'll get a couple of extra presents once their birthday rolls around, and maybe they'll take them to a baseball game one of these days...in Asia.

Blizzard plans to release more info on both the Battle.net World Championships and the 2013 rendition of BlizzCon "in the months ahead."

Oh well.

sad day :(

That's actually really surprising.

Why no Blizzcon this year? Because Blizzard isn't releasing any new none expansion game this year.

Where will I get my "Really awkward fat person.jpg"s from :(

sad pandas

Now where will I have to go to have over-the-hill metal bands yell homophobic slurs at me.

well that sucks

Makes sense, probably shouldn't hold an event the year you actually have enough upcoming releases to fill one.

The level of fuckness I give about this is very close to zero.

Wow, didn't expect this.

This sounds like they are saying they do not have anything new to announce this year. 90% of the hype from Blizzcon is seeing the announcement of the next Blizzard title as well as getting some kind of playable form of it. If they aren't doing one, that sounds to me like they don't have anything to announce. Which means everything we already know about is what Blizzard will be doing until 2013.

@Winternet said:

The level of fuckness I give about this is very close to zero.

Fuckness as a scale for measuring how much of a fuck one gives about something is ingenious. You, sir, put the 'win' in 'internet' (I don't know what that means).

this is disappointing

@Winternet said:

The level of fuckness I give about this is very close to zero.

Good man.

Kotick is now sulking over the lost profits from all those overpriced tickets and streaming passes they could have sold.

Does Blizzard actually turn a profit at Blizzcon?

I'm guessing it's a non-trivial money sink for them. While it's tough cookies for Blizzcon attendees, I kind've respect Blizzard's dedication to actually trying to roll games out instead of their usual "fuck it, whenever" attitude.

Man, they were so close to booking the next logical act after Ozzie Osbourne to perform at Blizzcon too.

GWAR!

@Jumbs said:

Where will I get my "Really awkward fat person.jpg"s from :(

There's still San Diego Comic Con.

@RobertOrri said:

Kotick is now sulking over the lost profits from all those overpriced tickets and streaming passes they could have sold.

Blizzard always takes a loss on Blizzcon...

@dudy80 said:

@RobertOrri said:

Kotick is now sulking over the lost profits from all those overpriced tickets and streaming passes they could have sold.

Blizzard always takes a loss on Blizzcon...
^This is true

Hm, those guys at the Instance podcast are gonna be so disappointed.

Ahahahah, oh you Blizzard you. You may have great games, but you're still one of those companies I really, really dislike, along with Activision. Last time I've waited for one of your games, it was like, twelve years ago. Now I just don't care. I'll play D3, but I certainly am not expecting it at all, that is, whenever you guys stop being funded to extend those absurdly long projects of yours.

Well at least we're getting some e-sport action instead :)

@Mr_Skeleton said:

Why no Blizzcon this year? Because Blizzard isn't releasing any new none expansion game this year.

They didn't last year either.

I guess it makes sense since they won't have any new games to announce/show off, although it makes me wonder how far off Titan really is.

Dude, I am glad they cancelled it. I heard it costs Blizz 75 million to rent out the convention place they go to. <>

@Jayzilla said:

Dude, I am glad they cancelled it. I heard it costs Blizz 75 million to rent out the convention place they go to. <>

I declare that to be an illegal amount of money.

Doesn't affect me.

Eh. Diablo 3. Eh.

I'm kind of surprised to see that they would actually cancel BlizzCon... I know they were mostly just extravagant marketing galas at the onset, but they were probably making money on the entire event near the end.

Surprising and disappointing.

@RuthLoose said:

Man, they were so close to booking the next logical act after Ozzie Osbourne to perform at Blizzcon too.

GWAR!

That would be the only way I'd ever go to Blizzcon.

If the world really does end this year, there will be no more Blizzcons. Ever.

I don't see why people are upset by this news. There are a few things you can gather from this announcement.

1) Blizzard currently plan to release Diablo 3, Heart of the Swarm and Mists of Pandaria prior to when Blizzcon would take place.

2) If one of those games isn't out then it'll only be a few months away (late this year or early next year) and will already have all the features and details released (that they want to release prior to launch) thus giving them nothing to talk about at Blizzcon itself other than a possible release date (something which can just as easily be announced at this event, especially if it's Heart of the Swarm).

3) They have no other games to talk about and we're not likely to see any game releases in 2013 (unless one of the games scheduled for this year is delayed until 2013)

4) Blizzcon 2013 will most likely contain details about Legacy of the Void, Diablo 3 expansion pack and new WoW Expansion pack along with the possibility of Titan.

It makes absolutely no sense for them to have a Blizzcon this year when they'll have very little to discuss. And given the amount of work that goes into making an event like this (known from experience) it's best all round that they don't have a Blizzcon this year and instead have an event that'll focus on the games they're releasing this year and the competitive nature of those games.

Fuck, and this was the year I was finally going to finally be able to afford the trip :(

The level of fuckness I give about this is very close to zero.

@Dark_Lord_Spam said:

@Winternet said:

The level of fuckness I give about this is very close to zero.

I find fuckitude to be a more accurate scale for measurement.

You need a fuckometer for that.

aw.

@Taklulas said:

@dudy80 said:

@RobertOrri said:

Kotick is now sulking over the lost profits from all those overpriced tickets and streaming passes they could have sold.

Blizzard always takes a loss on Blizzcon...
^This is true

They last time they said anything about losing money on it was in 2009 at the Austin GDC, and that was before BlizzCon 2009 and the introduction of their own internet streaming service.

While the 2009 numbers are not clear to me, it's on record that in 2010 there were 550k stream viewers. In 2011, that number increased to 740k.

There's no way to tell how many of those viewers bought a virtual ticket instead of watching for free, but I'd bet that a sizeable chunk of those numbers earned them money.

Actually pretty excited now, what can they be working on? But come on guys, just announce the name of Project Titan. That's all I really need to know.

More StarCraft II championships are a good thing.

I love you Navarro

Dude, I am glad they cancelled it. I heard it costs Blizz 75 million to rent out the convention place they go to. <>

This was good. Blizzcon really shouldn't be every year, instead it should be every other year. It really is every 2 years Blizzard has something interesting to show or announce.

2011: Mists of Pandaria, Heart of the Swarm

2010: Demon Hunter class

2009: Cataclysm, Monk class

2008: Wizard class

So long as it gets Diablo III released this year, I'm all for this.

I think ArsTechnica kind of nailed it. They openly lost money on it. Every two years seems pretty solid for a company looking to suck as much money as possible from anything.

Honestly this is a good thing, they don't have anything to announce or show off.. D3 and both expansions drops this year right? would be stupid to do one this year.

Blizzcon should of always been a every other year thing.

Too many game companies have stupid "cons" now anyway.

Still not as stupid as Minecon i spose.