Blizzard has officially cancelled this year’s BlizzCon live event, citing “health and safety considerations” relating to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
BlizzCon executive producer Saralyn Smith had initially highlighted the uncertainties surrounding this year’s show in a blog post written last month, explaining that Blizzard was “considering a range of scenarios and possibilities”, but that “it might be a few months before we know for certain if or how we’ll proceed”.
In a follow-up post earlier today, however, Smith announced, rather sooner than expected, that Blizzard had taken the “very difficult decision” to cancel this year’s BlizzCon.
“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,” Smith noted, “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.”
Overwatch 2 Gameplay Trailer Watch on YouTube
While Smith said Blizzard was “feeling deeply disappointed about [the decision to cancel BlizzCon]”, she noted the team was currently discussing how it might “channel the BlizzCon spirit and connect with [the community] in some way online, far less impacted by the state of health and safety protocols for mass in-person gatherings. “