Blizzcon 2020 Has Been Canceled; Digital Event Planned for Early 2021

Blizzcon 2020 has been canceled due to concerns surrounding the coronavirus, Blizzard announced in a blog post Tuesday.

People at Blizzard had considered planning an event that could comply with the new health guidelines. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like things will be back to normal by the time Blizzcon normally takes place in early November, and so they decided the best decision would be to cancel the in-person event, Blizzcon’s executive producer Saralyn Smith wrote in the post.

Instead, the company is exploring ways to bring part of Blizzcon’s celebrations online, perhaps in the form of online competition or virtual announcements. Whatever Blizzard’s plans are, Smith suggested in the post they were early in the planning phase, and indicated they wouldn’t be ready until at least early 2021.

“We’re feeling deeply disappointed about this decision, and imagine many of you will feel the same,” Smith wrote. “I truly love BlizzCon, and I know that’s a sentiment shared by everyone at Blizzard. We will sorely miss connecting with so many of you at the convention and ‘recharging our geek batteries’ this fall.”

The convention, held every year except for 2006 and 2012 since its inception in 2005, was a venue for fans of videogame company Blizzard’s properties to meet, compete and show off cosplay. It’s also traditionally been a place for Blizzard to make announcements surrounding its games, such as World of Warcraft, Diablo and Overwatch.

At last year’s Blizzcon, the company announced two new sequels for its franchises: Overwatch 2 and Diablo IV. Blizzard never made any promises to show more details on these games at Blizzcon 2020, but if any announcements were planned, they might be pushed back to whenever its digital event takes place.

For more on Blizzard’s franchises, check out our ranking of Overwatch’s heroes, as well as some of the best characters in World of Warcraft.