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. Kzilla's Avatar
    Last second effort to make competitive arenas show up on esports gaming news feeds at all. I haven't read a single thing about the top arena scene on any website other than mmo/blizz/youtube since BC. It's funny to me that Titan is so underdeveloped that they can cancel blizzcon 10 months ahead of time.
  1. mmoc65c75425f9's Avatar
    "witness some of the most skilled pro players on the planet " Made me Lol hard
  1. Millennía's Avatar
    Understandable why there is no Blizzcon this year. There really wouldn't be much to talk about because by that time their 3 big new titles will be released or we would have already known everything about them by that time. So I expect to see some big announcements next year including Titan!
  1. mmoc6af618f320's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Polpe View Post
    I very much doubt they'd lack content for blizzcon lol
    Yea except they actually would. DIII would be already out by fall 2012, there isn't much on the SC scene overall and MoP was already announced. Plus there will be MoP beta for everyone who actually cares about it (Annual pass).

    Lack of relevant content is precisely the reason why there won't be any Blizzcon because they wouldn't have anything to do there.
  1. Bombkirby's Avatar
    I know Blizzcon takes a lot of time out of the employee's schedules. For example the forum blues barely make any posts during the proceeding week of Blizzcon because they're busy with preparations. So the good thing about this is we get HotS/MoP faster than they would be out with Blizzcon.
  1. Pr0ev0lution's Avatar
    i basically read that as "yeah so we are working on project titan in valve time so expect that when half life 3 is announced, mists should be in beta long before blizzcon and heart of the swarm will be out so we have nothing interesting to announce until next year, when we will show off the protoss starcraft 2 expansion" seriously though its a shame i love blizzcon weekend even though i've never been able to attend in person. maybe this means blizz might turn up at E3 this year for the mists opening cinematic reveal.
  1. McFrotton's Avatar
    So this is the only way they foudn to get a wow xpac faster.....CUT THE BLIZZCON WE DOTN HAVE TIME FOR SHENANIGANS THIS YEAR! Or money talked....go figure (was it costly , i dotn think just saying this over my head)
  1. Brett Skullcrack's Avatar
    Not really a surprise. I remember watching the last two Blizzcons and thinking "wow, I'd be really pissed off if I had actually paid for this junk".
  1. Bluzah's Avatar
    I agree that MoP will be out before BlizzCon I've been saying it for ages. I predict by the summer break in the U.S. But who knows right?
  1. Eis's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Kobomino View Post
    Looks like all cosplayers got extra year to finish their projects!
    Seriously. But by next year priest t13 won't seem as cool. =(

    Oh well. More time to save money.


    Edit: Seriously though guys, Blizzcon is no small feat. It takes a boatload of work. It's probably not a light decision to not have one and instead work really hard on stuff. But I just hope we benefit from it.
  1. Howard Moon's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Matutin View Post
    So, if no BlizzCon till 2013, when and where this guys are going to announce Pandaria? :O
    They are going to do it 3 months ago
  1. Wishblade's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Millennía View Post
    Understandable why there is no Blizzcon this year. There really wouldn't be much to talk about because by that time their 3 big new titles will be released or we would have already known everything about them by that time. So I expect to see some big announcements next year including Titan!
    Agreed, with their current work being released around that time (I could imagine) there'd be no big news other than potentially Titan. But we'll wait for 2013 then, surely we'll get loads of awesome stuff then. =D
  1. Shrouded's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by reve View Post
    Yea except they actually would. DIII would be already out by fall 2012, there isn't much on the SC scene overall and MoP was already announced. Plus there will be MoP beta for everyone who actually cares about it (Annual pass).

    Lack of relevant content is precisely the reason why there won't be any Blizzcon because they wouldn't have anything to do there.
    Exactly. Except MoP will have been released by then, and it'd be too early to talk about the new expansion.
  1. Bombkirby's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by reve View Post
    Yea except they actually would. DIII would be already out by fall 2012, there isn't much on the SC scene overall and MoP was already announced. Plus there will be MoP beta for everyone who actually cares about it (Annual pass).

    Lack of relevant content is precisely the reason why there won't be any Blizzcon because they wouldn't have anything to do there.
    Well they could...maybe sow some stuff for Starcraft 2 Part 3 (the name evades me if they gave it one yet) but yeah...thats it. Thats not nearly enough to host a convention over.
  1. Geigerton's Avatar
    Another large part of Blizzcon is they promote soon to be released products. This is a year that all of their major, revealed, projects are laying down the merch before Blizzcon. Remove the concert (big PR problem last year), the giant new product announcement (D3/SCII/WoW have none, Titan apparently not ready for it), and filler panels (still cool, but they are filler) and what do you have left? A couple tournaments.

    So I'm guessing their answer is a half-truth. Because of their busy schedule they'll have no big product to reveal this year. Without that, it is hard to justify beyond just being a large party to the share holders.
  1. Collected's Avatar
    Geigerton: Yeah makes sense. Perhaps an early/Spring 2013 slot will suit Titan and the next WoW Xpac better than Fall 2012.
  1. Lac's Avatar
    They can't really win on this issue. If they hold it this year, it will be much like the 2010 blizzcon where they didnt announce anything and the fans were outraged. Better to hold it off for a year and make it kick ass. Hopefully this means they are pushing MoP and D3 pretty hard at the moment.
  1. Bluey111's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Imhullu View Post
    Meh, the esports for these games isn't that appealing to me.
    only sc2 is good, wow arena has no place in esports tbh, its too imbalanced

    on the bright side, D3 and MoP are guaranteed to be released before blizzcon was supposed to take place
  1. Howard Moon's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by reve View Post
    DIII would be already out by fall 2012, there isn't much on the SC scene overall and MoP was already announced. Plus there will be MoP beta for everyone who actually cares about it (Annual pass).

    Lack of relevant content is precisely the reason why there won't be any Blizzcon because they wouldn't have anything to do there.
    I don't know much about what's going on in the SC2 scene, but other than that this sounds about right.

    But really, who cares? Not having a BlizzCon this year will just make next year's more exciting, tbh.
  1. Anjerith's Avatar
    Given that Blizzard is usually locked down for the two months leading up to Blizzon while they prep for it, it is nice that they have decided to forego it in favor of actually working on their titles.

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