The primary reason Blizzard gave this morning for announcing its decision not to host a Blizzcon fan gathering this year was that the company is "heavily focused on getting Diablo III, [World of Warcraft's] Mists of Pandaria, and [Starcraft II's] Heart of the Swarm into players' hands as soon as possible." While this is probably true, the justification doesn't fully explain the decision to my satisfaction.
Don't get me wrong, I understand that putting on a massive convention as big as Blizzcon is quite an undertaking, and no doubt requires diverting some attention from Blizzard's primary focus on creating games. But it's not as if Blizzard wasn't working on a wide variety of pending projects in the six out of seven previous years it managed to put on the show. (There was no 2006 Blizzcon after 8,000 people came out for the inaugural 2005 show). In fact, with Diablo III finally, semi-credibly threatening to be released in the next few months—after four straight years of Blizzcon showings—you'd think there would be a little bit of extra bandwidth to devote to this year's convention by its usual October date.
It's also hard to believe that Blizzard would simply want to do without the massive promotional opportunity that Blizzcon represents just because it would require some extra work. Not only does the event serve as a way to provide controlled early previews and major announcements directly to tens of thousands of attending fans (and those following along via press coverage), but those fans actually pay substantial sums of money—$175 per ticket last year—for the privilege of taking part in the marketing maelstrom. Blizzard has said in the past that it actually loses money on the convention despite taking in millions of dollars in ticket sales, but I have to believe that the goodwill and fan interest generated by the event makes it an incredibly good marketing value for the company. Otherwise, why would they have put on the past six Blizzcons at all?
Of course, many of the functions of Blizzcon could be served virtually now. Instead of summoning over 25,000 people to Anaheim to hear a keynote speech, watch some tournaments, and try out the latest build of its next expansions, why not just provide live video of the events and offer beta downloads to the most devoted fans? Blizzard has actually been making steps in this direction in the past few years. Since 2009, the company has offered a comprehensive pay-per-view TV and Internet streaming package for those unwilling or unable to shell out for a ticket to Blizzcon.
But a fully virtual Blizzcon wouldn't capture what the actual show provides, which is an opportunity for Blizzard's massive, incredibly devoted fanbase to commune in the real world. Anyone who's attended a fan-focused show like the Penny Arcade Expo, or even a game-focused professional conference like E3, will tell you about the sense of connection and community that develops when so many commited fans of the medium gather in one place. Blizzard's fans already gather online every day, and any fully virtual Blizzcon gathering would likely feel a bit impotent compared to its real-world counterpart.
Blizzard will still be providing that real-world gathering opportunity, to an extent, at the newly announced Battle.net World Championship which will premiere in Asia at the end of the year, we're told. While that's a great sign of Blizzard's commitment to the burgeoning eSports movement, and to those devoted to the ultra-competitive side of the company's games, it seems an ill fit for the less competitive fans who want a chance to show off their Murloc balloon hats, listen to some nerdy musical acts and basically just hang out with their fellow Blizzard devotees.
Blizzard has yet to respond to a request for further comment on the cancellation of this year's Blizzcon, but it's the kind of thing fans will quickly and wildly speculate on. Perhaps Blizzard doesn't have any tentpole announcements or new preview content to anchor this year's show (Mists of Pandaria and Heart of the Swarm were shown at Blizzcon last year. And whither Titan?). Perhaps the company is worried because last year's show was the first to have attendance lower than the one before it, declining from 27,000 to 26,000 attendees (The Anaheim Convention Center site has hosted 81,000 attendees for the NAMM music equipment convention in the past). Perhaps it truly believes that Blizzcon's competitive tournaments, now hosted at the Battle.net World Championships, were the show's most important function.
Or perhaps we should take today's announcement at face value and accept that Blizzard is simply much too busy with making games to waste time putting on a huge promotional event. I'm sorry, but I don't quite buy it.
Listing image by Image courtesy of Blizzard
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