BlizzCon 2020 canceled with a possible replacement event coming early 2021

The Barbarian, Sorceress and Druid in Diablo IV
The Barbarian, Sorceress and Druid in Diablo IV (Image credit: Blizzard Entertainment)

What you need to know

  • BlizzCon, Blizzard Entertainment's annual event, won't be held in 2020.
  • This decision was reached after Blizzard evaluated the state of the world with the ongoing pandemic.
  • There may however be a replacement event sometime in early 2021.

Another big event in 2020 is being canceled. Today, Blizzard Entertainment announced that BlizzCon 2020 is canceled due to the the state of the world and the ongoing pandemic. While this news will certainly be disappointing to Blizzard fans, it certainly isn't surprising, with other events in 2020 such as GDC, E3 and others all being canceled. Meanwhile, Gamescom 2020 has shifted to an all-digital presentation.

There is still some hope for a Blizzard event though. In the announcement, Blizzard explained that it is discussing some kind of online event that could "channel the BlizzCon spirit" in a safe way. That said, it won't happen until early 2021 at the earliest.

"We'd want to do this as soon as we could, but given that this is new-ish territory and the different factors involved, it will most likely be sometime early next year," Saralyn Smith, executive producer of BlizzCon explained.

Last year at BlizzCon 2019, Blizzard announced some major games and expansions such as Diablo 4 and Overwatch 2. Neither game has a release date or even a release window at this time, with Blizzard noting that Diablo 4 in particular isn't coming anytime soon.

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Samuel Tolbert
Freelance Writer

Samuel Tolbert is a freelance writer covering gaming news, previews, reviews, interviews and different aspects of the gaming industry, specifically focusing on Xbox and PC gaming on Windows Central. You can find him on Twitter @SamuelTolbert.