Why did they even have a Blizzcon this year?

[FelPlague]

Regardless of the announcements, it'd still happen due to the 5 games with eSports. Last time they skipped a BlizzCon only starcraft had to be moved to a local arena.

I agree thia BlizzCon was light compared to the last couple, it still beats out a lot of the 2011 and earlier cons

God i remember back when blizzcon was literally just wow info, and starcraft 1 tournaments...

[Frostyfire14]

esports HEAVILY fuels Blizzcon. Information regarding new content for their franchises are just bonuses.

[FelPlague]

blizzcon is profitable as fuck. they'll tell you it isn't, but they won't show you it isn't and the last guy that dug up that type of info was hit with a cease and desist but he had enough paperwork to prove that blizz was making HUGE amounts of money all the way back to the first blizzcon (daeity)

Y... you do know company profits are public record right..?
any source on this cease and desist? cause that sounds like a fuck ton of bullshit...

[Rusken]

I agree it was a disappointing Blizzcon this year, from the perspective of a Diablo fan who was banking on something to keep the franchise alive my hopes and dreams were pretty crushed with Immortal.

On the other hand, WC3: Reforged and the new Overwatch stuff are exciting enough for me that the entire thing wasn't a waste of time.

E-Sports are going to drive a Blizzcon every year from now on.

This is a big point as well, Blizzcon's E-Sports are the biggest part of the whole thing now and it will only continue to grow. There was some 150k people watching the Overwatch World Cup finals as well as the packed arena. On top of the WoW MDI, AWC and all the other games they hold tournaments for there's way more interest in the E-sports than there is in the new game announcements.

[Eon Drache]

To answer the question of this thread...

Money, money, money...money!!

Blizzard has gone on record to state that they actually take a lose financially to investors when they do Blizzcon. They've stated they do it for the marketing opportunity and community.

[tangers58]

They've skipped it before when they had nothing, and this year seems like it was one of those years. It's been very content light across all the franchises. No one would blame them if they did - there's enough precedent.

I'm glad I saved my £35 and didn't get a Virtual Ticket, and I genuinely feel sorry for those who spent the money; especially the more hardcore Diablo fans than I. But even as a WoW and Overwatch player, there doesn't seem to be anything major.

Edit: Also forgot they make StarCraft too, I think they forgot that as well.

They announced pretty much the exact same amount of stuff as last year... OW just didn't have a new map, probably because they literally just got one. Its just not an expansion year for WoW and announced far more than I expected for it. Plus we got the stunning WC3 remaster. Diablo got shit on but even they got more than they did last time... even if it was shit.

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Blizzard has gone on record to state that they actually take a lose financially to investors when they do Blizzcon. They've stated they do it for the marketing opportunity and community.

And Blizzard would never lie "on the record" *eyeroll*

[Barnabas]

They have it so the fans can meetup at one place.

[Orby]

Blizzcon used to always happen every two years which I admit was better, but they do it every year now and that results to some of the cons feeling weaker than the others. Remember the 'Geek Is' Blizzcon? :P

[Eon Drache]

Y... you do know company profits are public record right..?
any source on this cease and desist? cause that sounds like a fuck ton of bullshit...

Not to mention that Blizzard has gone on record with investors about the lose so them lying is actually illegal and the lie itself would cause them to lose money because it scares investors. A company lying to investors about profits and saying they lose money from this would actually be one of the worst things a company can do for financials.

[telygroar]

Well, it was light, especially compared to the last one, but the """basic""" minima for a blizzcon was here : lot of cinematics, hearthstone xpack, a new overwatch heros... And some little things for wow, but i admit it was a little light in this area. I was happy to hear avbout the war3 remastered (and i've buyed it, for the new cinematics, the campaign to redo, AND THE FUCKING TOWER DEFENSE IN CUSTOM GAMES §§), but i think the REAL mistake was doing the mobile diablo rape at the opening cinematic. They should have done it in the d3 whats next panel, like "ho hey, we're doing this too for people who want it" not like "HEY LOOK AT THIS AMAZING IDEA § §§ YOU CAN THROW MORE MONEY AT US §". It killed the hype.

Ho yeah, and there is a japanime heros in Hots.

[Eon Drache]

They announced pretty much the exact same amount of stuff as last year... OW just didn't have a new map, probably because they literally just got one. Its just not an expansion year for WoW and announced far more than I expected for it. Plus we got the stunning WC3 remaster. Diablo got shit on but even they got more than they did last time... even if it was shit.

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And Blizzard would never lie "on the record" *eyeroll*

To investors? No. It would literally be one of the worst things a company can do. Hell, you would want to lie and say "Yeah we make a profit" because lying and saying "No we lose money on this" When you actually gain would in itself make you lose more money. And you'd be in business suicide if you were caught.

[MoanaLisa]

Blizzcon's E-Sports are the biggest part of the whole thing now and it will only continue to grow. There was some 150k people watching the Overwatch World Cup finals as well as the packed arena. On top of the WoW MDI, AWC and all the other games they hold tournaments for there's way more interest in the E-sports than there is in the new game announcements.

I don't follow E-Sports closely (or at all in most cases) but I was talking about the lackluster panel program this year at Blizzcon with some friends and someone rather persuasively argued that the E-Sports side is taking over the convention in terms of importance. After checking a few links I was passed I think I agree. If you haven't followed E-Sports at all and what's going on between the various games and studios it's really easy to miss the amount of work and effort that Blizzard is putting in to push this along. For Blizzard old-timers who may not have had a past interest what's really going on and the progress that Blizzard has made is a little startling.

Anyway, that's why I think there will be something called Blizzcon every year whether it features developer panels or not. I suspect the game development side though is going to be strongly encouraged to have something good to present every year after this year.

EDIT: I don't know if past statements about the financial viability of Blizzcon apply any longer. Come on people, things change. The rise of the Virtual Ticket has undoubtedly changed that calculation a great deal. Most of the statements I remember from Blizzard about losing money or trying to break even on Blizzcon came before the VT became a really big deal. Still, arena rental and security are amazingly expensive things to have to foot. So I don't know. But the time when those statements were made has to be taken into account against the profit center that the VT has become.

[Nerph-]

Agree with Jessicka, they skipped a year before and I think they should have done the same this year. I mean, if it wasn't for the Diablo announcement, this Blizzcon would probably have been one easily forgotten. The thing that most will remember about this Blizzcon was the drama around the Diablo announcement.

And frankly, even with that drama, it still feels lackluster.

[Barnabas]

I don't follow E-Sports closely (or at all in most cases) but I was talking about the lackluster panel program this year at Blizzcon with some friends and someone rather persuasively argued that the E-Sports side is taking over the convention in terms of importance. After checking a few links I was passed I think I agree. If you haven't followed E-Sports at all and what's going on between the various games and studios it's really easy to miss the amount of work and effort that Blizzard is putting in to push this along. For Blizzard old-timers who may not have had a past interest what's really going on and the progress that Blizzard has made is a little startling.

Anyway, that's why I think there will be something called Blizzcon every year whether it features developer panels or not. I suspect the game development side though is going to be strongly encouraged to have something good to present every year after this year.

That's generally what I care about outside the opening announcements. Watching this years WCS was really awesome. The wow panel didn't really give anyone that much new information since mmo-champion does a good job at informing everyone that see's the front page of any and all changes they are allowed to show.

[Kathranis]

Even years are always light on announcements, but we got:

• WoW: Animated short, cinematic, 8.1.5, 8.2, and 8.2.5 details, plus a tiny tease for 8.3
• WoW Classic: Release date, monetization model, content release plan, cool behind the scenes panel
• WC3 Reforged: Announcement and behind the scenes panel. Most exciting thing for me, personally.
• Hearthstone: Expansion. I agree the game is stale and I personally haven't been logging in, but it's still pretty big news.
• Overwatch: Hero, animated short, cool behind the scenes panel. Second most exciting thing for me, personally.
• HotS: New hero, game update plans for 2019. Personally I think Orphea is a pretty neat character.

I'm not a StarCraft or Diablo guy, so in that regard I guess I got off easy. I understand why fans of those games would be disappointed, though.

And obviously, Blizzcon is the culmination of a lot of their eSports for all their games, and there's also the community events which are a big draw for a lot of people.

Nevermind that the live event is a place for hundreds of players to play demos, meet developers, hang out with friends, go to parties, hook up, etc. A lot of the people who go to Blizzcon also make a vacation out of it and spend some time at Disneyland.

Plus the Classic demo, cosmetics for all their games, and a free hero for HotS. The more into all their games you are, the more value you get out of it.


Personally, I'm hugely into the behind the scenes of game development, so the panels are great for me. Concept art, development timelines, engineering hurdles, stories about bugs and breakthroughs, stuff like that gets me really excited. But I know a lot of people aren't into that stuff.


I never really get why people would buy a Virtual Ticket or attend IRL if they're only intrerested in announcements, since they're always shown during the free opening ceremony stream. Likewise, if they only want a cosmetic for one or two games.

Obviously, if you aren't going to get your money's worth, don't buy it. That's up to you to figure out. Blizzard isn't obligated to only have Blizzcons when they're announcing things you're interested in. The convention serves a huge number of people who get a lot of different things out of it.

[kamikaze148]

New hearthstone expansion shouldnt even count, new cards is the bare minimum of what they have to do for a card game, the game is stale as fk nothings really change since 2013

I get your point, and I too have overplayed Hearthstone over the years, and it is pretty stale for me at least. Currently not playing as I'm playing other games and cant justify the amount of real world money i'd need to spend to catch up...but i don't know what else you would classify as rejuvenating the format of a CCG like Hearthstone?.

If you look at MTG its literally, new mechanics, new cards. Hearthstone is much the same, its just the way the games are in terms of new content.

[Kathranis]

The wow panel didn't really give anyone that much new information since mmo-champion does a good job at informing everyone that see's the front page of any and all changes they are allowed to show.

Kind of a weird argument to make. If they didn't have the wow panel there wouldn't be a recap on the front page of MMOC.

And honestly, I always feel like MMOC's recaps fall short of actually watching the panels. They mix up details fairly often, sometimes leave out really interesting details, and sometimes fail to provide context or correctly interpret jokes or sarcasm. But that's just me.

[IIamaKing]

UMmm to get people to pay 50 to what 200$ a ticket for an advertising convention. Pretty obvious I would think.

[Jessicka]

Kind of a weird argument to make. If they didn't have the wow panel there wouldn't be a recap on the front page of MMOC.

And honestly, I always feel like MMOC's recaps fall short of actually watching the panels. They mix up details fairly often, sometimes leave out really interesting details, and sometimes fail to provide context or correctly interpret jokes or sarcasm. But that's just me.

The WoW team do some nice Q&As/Podcasts, which is why Blizzcon kinda raked over old ground. Blizz had already put the info out there themselves, MMO do only summaries of that.

[Trumpcat]

Blizzcon is a celebration for fans with lots of show, talks, fluff, entertainment. It also talks about the near future of the franchises.
I got the virtual ticket and I think it was great.
I don't understand how people can be constantly butthurt.