Blizzard Jam-Packed; No Blizzcon in 2012
Posted 25 January 2012 by digitalforce
Blizzard PR sent out an email early today announcing their 2012 Battle.net World Championship. Strangely slipped into the second paragraph is the announcement that due to a “jam-packed” schedule, there will be no 
Blizzcon in 2012. Shocking news but I had wondered how they were going to fit in three game releases, Blizzcon and anything else this year. The full email text is quoted below.
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.
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I am thinking this is not a good sign. If d3 is done then why not have the D3 devs there talking about the game and same goes for HOTs which was my understand is also Nearly™ complete.
Couse you dont have to talk about something that was already released, I’ve watched the last 2 blizzcons and they didn’t say a word about the games that were out already. Only thing they could be talking about would be D3X but it’s 2 early to announce that.
Where did you get the impression that HotS is anywhere close to being done?
I said nearly™ not close and it is supposedly out this year. Last march Dustin Bowder said he expected development to take 1 year so that would be this march. And I still expect it out before what would have been blizzcon.
Yes, a very curious move indeed. Honestly, they have a full plate but that shouldn’t really kill the devs to take a few weeks out of their schedule, especially since it’s 10 months away…
Either way, what is done is done and if don’t get DIII soon, I don’t know what to think..
It’s not just showing up to the event, but preparing a playable demo. That in itself is easily 2-3 months of work for at least 2-3 people, and likely many more who would need to chip in as well.
I like it. Focus on development. Conventions are nice, but not really necessary in the grand scheme of things.
Clever Blizzard, they know that if they dont get D3 out before Blizzcon, people would only attent to burn everything down!!! People are angry Blizz, you know it! We feel it!!!
Gawd, I could not even imagine writing a news item pondering if one of the big reveals at this year’s Blizzcon will be the release date.
But in case no one else says it, and it has to be said….
sign of release.
D3 will be “out before Blizzcon”. That’s why the next Blizzcon is in 2013, obviously.
Wow, did not expect. I suppose it’s a wise move though. All these events are major overhead costs. It would make Blizzard a more top heavy company if they would recruit to be able to sustain the effort.
Agree 100%
Had a blast last time and was really looking forward to going again this year. Wasn’t expecting any big announcements or anything but it was going to be an excuse for a really big meet up for my guild.
Sign of release. 22th of March.
LOL, they probably don’t have enough body guards to protect them from angry Diablo fans.
“Jam-packed” I’m sure, aren’t they always? Is there a time when they aren’t busy?
It’s because they won’t have **** to say at a BlizzCon this year.
You hit the nail on the head nothing to say or announce then why hold a convention. Unless you directly want to see the disappointment on the faces of your fans.
Yeah. It’s a good move, imo. If they aren’t announcing Titan (which is still probably 10 years from completion, knowing Glacial Entertainment) then it’s good to just…not have a convention. BlizzCon has a use, but it isn’t necessary every year.
I feel more like they don’t have anything new or exciting to announce this year. They’re probably going to save the Titan MMO for a Blizzcon 2013 announcement.
yes sir,you are exactly right.they will release all 3 games before Blizzcon and they won’t have anything huge to reveal except Titan.But i doubt it will be this year. So,if anyone hopes to see more news about Titan will have to wait until 2013
First off, I will eat my hat if they are able to get all 3 games out this year.
Secondly, No blizzcon = Titan is still more then 2 years away.
LOL even if they announce it, knowing blizzard, it is likely still 5 years away from launch…
The mantra has been “If D3 is pushed to 2012, we’ll release 2 games in 2012.”
D3 and Mists of Pandaria seem for sure, with HotS being the only possible title to not make a 2012 release.
Um no… You quoted that wrong. The mantra was if D3 was pushed to 2012, they would be releasing 3 games in 2012… My guess is that it will be D3 then HotS then MoP judging by how long it took between WotLK and Cata…
2 years?? are you kidding me dude? 2018 if everything goes right
2012: nothing to announce
2013: titan announced, release 2015 (actual release 2018).
I was going make a few predictions around this announcement.. but everything I have guesses about Blizzard in the last three years has been wrong so, I’ll just be quiet.
I really have a feeling though that Diablo III won’t hit before Holiday 2012. Any bets? :)
I’ll take that bet. 10 Blizzard bucks, you’re on!
Oh course… the mayans weren’t counting down to the end of the world, but to the release of Diablo 3… obviously it will usher in a new era of ho.mo basementus
EDIT: Awesome, can’t use the name of our genus.
ROTFLMFAO!!!
This makes me curious about whether they are trying to shift the schedule on when BlizzCon occurs. Skipping a year gives them more flexibility to set it at any time during the 2013 calendar. Perhaps this is a combination of there being little to announce and them wanting to shift the BlizzCon recurrence to a different part of the calendar without having two BlizzCons less than a year apart. May not be the case, but it certainly gives them the opportunity.
Y’know I was always curious why they picked it at the time they did. What reasons, exactly.
Because it’s usually at a time during the year that’s pretty inconvenient for students.
That’s what I was thinking too. The “jam packed schedule” excuse doesn’t make a lot of sense, because the effort and planning for conventions all falls on the marketing folks, and BC is a definitely a full-time job for a team of them. Yeah, some technical people take time to put together presentations and clean up a demo, but it’s not going to be much of a burden on them. I worked for a tech company that puts on its own convention every year, so I can speak at least reasonably knowledgeably about this.
Maybe this eSport thing is going to be much bigger than it sounds and contain Blizzcon-like elements, and the BC crew has been reassigned to that. Otherwise, I just can’t imagine Blizzard lightly giving up its privileged status as the only gaming company with a fanbase that can support its own massive convention, and consequently monopolize the attention of the entire gaming community for a weekend. You can’t put a price on that from a marketing perspective, and Blizzcon is about much more than the big reveals in the opening ceremony.
On the other hand, it’s clear that if their plans come to pass and content for all three franchises comes out this year, they won’t have much to show off in the demos at least. Since they’re now announcing titles about four years from release and WoW is showing that it’s reaching the end of its life cycle, you’d think they’d be pretty close to a Titan reveal. So maybe it’s less about the timing of the event than simply trying to plan it around the readiness of the new content.
WoW is far from the end of it’s life cycle. I would more say it just started its downward half of its life cycle. When the game gets to below 1million subscribers then you can say it’s close to the end.
Yeah, that’s more what I meant – if it was truly *at* the end, they planned devastatingly poorly without a transition plan to get users on another game. But it’s clear that the subscriber drain is going to continue as both the developers and players seem creatively exhausted with the IP. Therefore, its the right time to announce and start ramping up interest in the next MMO.