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No Blizzard At E3 2009

Just because the parent company is back in, don't expect the Blizz crew to follow suit. Because they ain't!

By Brad Shoemaker  |  Feb. 5, 2009

"Come back in October."
"Come back in October."
One of the biggest surprises out of the ESA's E3 exhibitor announcement on Monday was the reappearance of Activision Blizzard, which famously withdrew from the conference last year and instead held its own press event offsite. Sure, some other heavyweights such as LucasArts were also E3 no-shows in '08, but as it currently stands, you don't get much bigger than Activision, so that particular absence was profoundly felt.

The Activision part may be returning to the bigger, better, more badass E3 this year, but the Blizzard component is not. A rep for the company confirmed to us that Blizzard itself won't be appearing at the show, which I shall now prove with the following quote.

Blizzard Entertainment will not be attending or participating in E3 2009.

See? Those are certain terms, friends. Of course, the annual BlizzCon has practically become a cottage industry in itself, so ol' Blizz already has a ready outlet from which to dispense major announcements on Starcraft, Diablo, and WOW. But BlizzCon is typically later in the year, so if you're scrabbling for news on those games early in the summer, well, you may be out of luck.
Filed under: Activision Blizzard, Inc., Blizzard Entertainment
30 Comments
MagicKiwion Feb. 5, 2009 at 11:40 a.m.
Blizzard is too good for E3. They have their own freakin convention.
e: also brad, post news about the L4D announcement! http://kotaku.com/5147229/left-4-dead-survival-pack-unveiled?skyline=true&s=x
eclipt1con Feb. 5, 2009 at 11:40 a.m.
Not really any point for Blizzard to go to anything other than Blizzcon
Maxszyon Feb. 5, 2009 at 11:42 a.m.
With their own Blizzcon convention, always getting bigger and bigger... there's really no point for them to be there. They are too mammoth for it.
RenegadeSainton Feb. 5, 2009 at 11:45 a.m.
Renegades!
corumon Feb. 5, 2009 at 11:49 a.m.
I'm wondering if insted of "rep for the company confirmed to us"  you guys could just write 'Bob told us' , because i'm guessing that is the case ;)
ThomasPon Feb. 5, 2009 at 11:54 a.m.
Blizzard is too cool for E3.
Chocobo_Blitzeron Feb. 5, 2009 at 11:58 a.m.
Hopefully it wont be as late as october this year, that felt way too late. Lemme see the DIablo 3 classes, darn you.
Chainblaston Feb. 5, 2009 at 11:59 a.m.
Why pay to be some place when you can have people pay for you to be at another? Makes sense, right?
Kohe321on Feb. 5, 2009 at 12:24 p.m.
Sucks, but oh well.
Rioon Feb. 5, 2009 at 12:56 p.m.
That sucks.  I know ive been overly optimistic of hoping for D3 this year, and this only reaffirms that its likely not till 2010 that we will see it.  Unless something comes up at say GDC, which I doubt, there isnt alot of hope.
pause422on Feb. 5, 2009 at 12:59 p.m.
E3 is shit anymore anyway. Why would bliz want to have to give something to attend E3 when they have their own thing far better for themselves and their fans?
RHCPfan24on Feb. 5, 2009 at 1:05 p.m.
Doesn't really matter, considering Blizzcon is the shit for them.
BiG_Weaselon Feb. 5, 2009 at 1:18 p.m.
Most developers have a slew of games they can show off at E3 anyway. Blizzard has 3 franchises, two of which have games currently in development. There's no point in showing up for two games.
Blazer74on Feb. 5, 2009 at 1:20 p.m.
Who cares both SC2 and D3 look like reskinned versions of the old games. D3 at least had advantage in that no game that has ever tried to cop it has done what it did better. SC2 on the other hand has been surrpassed many times over as far as any real strategy gamer is concerned.
giyanks22on Feb. 5, 2009 at 1:52 p.m.
Blizzard would get lost in the other mediocrity at E3...
I want to see those games so bad though.
DukeTogoon Feb. 5, 2009 at 2:09 p.m.
@big_weasel

Blizz has more than two games in development.
Karmumon Feb. 5, 2009 at 2:24 p.m.
No Diablo III at E3 then, oh well.
BiggerBombon Feb. 5, 2009 at 2:34 p.m.
Well, it's good to hear that Prototype will be stopping by.
gamefreak9on Feb. 5, 2009 at 5:55 p.m.
The gods take their time :P. Blazer is a noob :P. SC2 will top all strategy games, only one i think it wont is Warcarft for the real time tactics it has, ive played and finished more or less every strategy game that had good reviews, and even though i cant say starcraft 1 is better than all of them, i can say that even though its like 10 years old its still better than about 60 per cent of strategy games that come out nowdays. W3 is the king so far :p, the custom map settings especially make it stand out. Diablo 3 looks soooo sweet, that physics system, the barbarian who used to be the most boring clas to play... he just looked soo freaking sweet
MordeaniisChaoson Feb. 5, 2009 at 6:03 p.m.
Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

I want Diablo 3!!!! At least like, something!!! v.v Oh well, there are other shows, and I'm sure they will continue to trickle out info over time as they have been since the announcement.

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