Update: Added a Blizzcon 2012 follow-up post by Bashiok and other news.

No BlizzCon in 2012 - Battle.net World Championship
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker)
Blizzard Entertainment is proud to announce the 2012 Battle.net World Championship, a major global eSports event featuring some of the best pro-gaming competition in the world. Slated to take place in Asia toward the end of 2012, the Battle.net World Championship will host this year’s StarCraft II and World of Warcraft Arena World Championship tournaments. Blizzard gamers and eSports fans from around the world will be invited to attend and witness some of the most skilled pro players on the planet battle it out for cash and glory.

We’re excited to be showcasing Blizzard eSports on a truly global stage this year. We're also heavily focused on getting Diablo III, Mists of Pandaria, and Heart of the Swarm into players’ hands as soon as possible. In light of our jam-packed schedule, we’ve decided to hold the next BlizzCon in 2013.

More details about the 2012 Battle.net World Championship and BlizzCon 2013, including specific dates and locations, will be coming in the months ahead.

Blizzcon 2012 Follow-up
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Yeah it's a bit disappointing because we all really do enjoy being able to 'open the doors' so to speak. But, it is an enormous effort by all employees, including our game designers and artists, not to mention customer support and quality assurance, PR, our business departments, and *hot breath on fingernails & shirt rub* Community & eSports to make a BlizzCon happen. In a year when we're working to release multiple titles (knock on wood) it makes sense to focus our efforts. Also with multiple game releases we just wonder if we'd be at a point with any of them where we'd have anything really big or new or cool to talk about.

We didn't have a BlizzCon in 2006 either, and at that time we were really strong on the idea that BlizzCon isn't really supposed to be and doesn't have to be an annual event. Of course then we have it for five straight years in a row... which obviously built some expectation.

Personally I always enjoy seeing the excitement, the rushing crowds, hearing the clicking of mice on the demo stations, and waiting in agony as the seconds countdown to an announcement and then the waves of emotion from the crowd that follow it. But thinking about our year and what we're trying to get done already without a BlizzCon, and having to think pretty hard about what we'd have to announce or demo, it just makes sense to me not to have one.

Here's to the Battle.net World Championship, it's going to be awesome, and to a bigger and better BlizzCon in 2013.

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This article was originally published in forum thread: No BlizzCon in 2013 - Battle.net World Championship in 2012 started by Boubouille View original post
Comments 310 Comments
  1. Ap0calypse's Avatar
    6 day old MMO Report? wtf
  1. Idletime's Avatar
    It's alright, nobody missed the 2006 Blizzcon either. I know I didn't. Back then they were awful. Imagine vanilla WoW awful. They didn't have the streaming option, you had to actually fly out there, and ffs nerds everywhere. It was an expense in both money and nasal exposure. But I do quote: "I look forward to Blizzcon every year." Which CEO of Blizzard says this in his opening speech every single year? Queue the Jeopardy music. Apparently not this year. I'm pretty sure he'll cry himself to sleep at night this year on his mattress full of money and weep into his pillow stuffed with cash that it just isn't fair we have no Blizzcon this year... since he looks forward to it every year. Maybe this next year he'll look forward to seeing Blizzard's stock get some acceleration since it's been sucking hind tit for a bit. Personally, I'll miss Blizzcon. I like watching Metzen nerd it up. I like watching the costumes. Jay Mohr won't get a paycheck this year. In reality, I doubt I would have bought the thing anyhow. D3 will be released this year and I don't think I care to collect another WoW pet since that sub is going BYEBYE once D3 is installed.
  1. Titoselfire's Avatar
    ohwell, im looking forward to the Arenanetcon 2013 anyway.
  1. mmocbfaacb1cad's Avatar
    No Blizzcon.. ? /sadface
  1. mmocdeddefe746's Avatar
    good decision imo, blizzcon is/was a hype event in my eyes always not much point hosting it just for the sake of hype
  1. Emek's Avatar
    week old mmo report? lol? Makes them pushing back the 1.1 update BY ONE DAY seem dramatic when you use a week old mmo report.
  1. Culexus's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Tijux View Post
    One more reason to quit wow.
    Jeah ... right. Because blizzcon is what defines the fun in wow ... oh wait!

    I'll probably get an infraction and im okay with that:

    You, sir, are an idiot
  1. mmocf74f506587's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Kazlehoff View Post
    Frankly, if you care about wow, you should HOPE games like GW2 and SWTOR succeed.

    under a monopoly, there is no innovation. everything becomes focused to making the company more and more money. they don't HAVE to care about the customer, because, really, WHERE ARE THEY GOING TO GO? that's the situation wow has right now. there are other games, but with populations and budgets so low that wow doesn't need to worry about them.

    i personally hate SWTOR and wouldn't play it if wow shut down today. i do however hope that they do WELL, because competition is healthy. and, for the same reason, you should hope GW2 is successful. (i don't need to hope, i'm certain it will.)


    The plan for the next Expac of Epic Fail Ripoff amalgamation (world of Pokemon Kung fu Panda Guild Wars Factions Nightfall) is already set in stone (as in, they cant change that MoP is the next expac now), but that doesn't mean blizzard cant realize how stupid some of there decisions in the past year and a half have been, and take steps to fix them.
    This, sums it up SO well.
  1. Lemons's Avatar
    Hmmm...the fanart seems a bit lacking lately...like some of the proportions and perspectives aren't right, but it's not like I could do any better.
  1. JabJack's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Rawer View Post
    Yes. Like D3 , "Early" 2013 ! lol

    Also to people thinking "No Blizzcon" means D3, MoP and SCII-2 will be out by october ! Stop dreaming and lying to yourselves !
    Only game that will be released by that time if they don't change the game mechanics again will be D3. MoP will be late November.
    If MoP was released in November that would dramatically impact their subs. (1.) Blizzard stated numerous times that 4.3.2 is the last patch for WoW till pre-mop patch. ( 2 ) Dragon Soul ( while a decent raid ) will not last for 11 months, commons sense will tell you that. Your logic Null
  1. Repefe's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by JabJack View Post
    If MoP was released in November that would dramatically impact their subs. (1.) Blizzard stated numerous times that 4.3.2 is the last patch for WoW till pre-mop patch. ( 2 ) Dragon Soul ( while a decent raid ) will not last for 11 months, commons sense will tell you that. Your logic Null
    How will that impact subs ... ppl bought annual pass.
  1. mmoc8c32716f2c's Avatar
    Finally realized they need to stop fannying around and pull their finger out? One can only hope...
  1. mmoca9d0c481a5's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by JabJack View Post
    If MoP was released in November that would dramatically impact their subs. (1.) Blizzard stated numerous times that 4.3.2 is the last patch for WoW till pre-mop patch. ( 2 ) Dragon Soul ( while a decent raid ) will not last for 11 months, commons sense will tell you that. Your logic Null
    1. Remember ICC ? That took 1 year.
    Blizz still nerfs DS, wowhead says that buff can go up to 35%, that's 7 months for you ( I know Bashiok said could not be necessary but still)
    2.Anual Pass ends november ...
    3. MoP ain't even in beta
    4. We talking about Soon™ Blizzard here.
  1. Kazlehoff's Avatar
    Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
    Here's to the Battle.net World Championship, it's going to be awesome,
    Except not really. this whole Battle.net world championship is because Wow was removed from the main E-sports circut.
    so they sacrificed Blizzcon to host some E-sports thing because they cant keep their own game balanced.
    Kinda Disappointing.
  1. Propelled's Avatar
    Team Liquid posted an interview with Ilja Rotelli, Blizzards Global Director of Community & eSports where he reveals the basic structure of how the championship is going to be run. While they only mention SC2 I would imagine they will be using a similar format for WoW.

    First Glimpse: 2012 Battle.Net World Championship.

    Personally while I'm a bit bummed about no Blizzcon I'm quite excited for the SC2 part of the turnament.
  1. DStrukt's Avatar
    Probably nothing to announce for 2013.. ?
    So BlizzCon 2013 will be for news in 2014, lets speculate.... The last WOW expansion, level 100 cap? TiTAN release date.. ?
  1. mmocbcc8305579's Avatar
    If there is nothing new to show, it makes sense to skip Blizzcon.
    On the other hand, it was always a big event for the community - bringing people from all over the world together.
    Skipping it because "they have too much to do" (which is apparently their official reason) might not be helping with their image.
  1. Avgonius's Avatar
    Oh no! I won't get to see the community whine insistently about how the virtual items bonus is a rip of, the virtual pass itself is a rip off, nothing good happened at BlizzCon, and all they hyper-sensitive politically correct police think Blizz purposely offended their pet cause / issue? /sarcasm Yeah I'm sure this post might be flame bait but if I was them I'd shut it down for good. The bad apples have spoiled it in a lot of ways. Unhappy people trying to drag everyone else down and rationalize it so they feel justified. Stinks because I always enjoyed it (and the game itself) for the light-hearted fun entertainment that it seems intended to be. Oh well.
  1. Snes's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by conscript View Post
    Well that is really surprising. I imagine they are going to use that event to preview all of their upcoming games and content like they do Blizzcon. Grats to the Asian players on getting their own convention. Thanks for ignoring the East Coast again Blizzard. This makes me think that MoP will be out prior to Blizzcon. It just seems weird that they wouldn't have their premier event in the States when there is a major game about to launch that they would have been previewing like crazy. Post-launch Blizzcon only features upcoming content patch information so they could still do that. More fuel to fire the Panda-ering to the Asian market folks sadly.
    Why do mods get away with taking sarcastic jabs at Asians?
  1. Sodia's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Tijux View Post
    One more reason to quit wow.
    thx god you Quit one mor idiot les ... bloody hell i dont even ....

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