When is BlizzCon 2024? Never! This year’s convention is officially cancelled.

BlizzCon 2024, the first BlizzCon that would’ve occurred since Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision-Blizzard was approved by the FTC, has been cancelled. In the announcement, part of the reason for the cancellation Blizzard cited was the fact that the usual early November date for the convention means that both the World of Warcraft and Diablo 4 expansions will just have released, so it wouldn’t be a great time for big announcements from two of the company’s biggest IPs. However, they did say that they would be coming to non-Blizzard conventions to make some announcements for upcoming content — they’ve had a strong showing at Gamescom for several years, so we’re not surprised that’s one of the venues they pointed to as a possibility.

2024 won’t be the first year we haven’t had a BlizzCon. Early on, there were several years without BlizzCon simply because there were relatively few games in the rotation, so there wasn’t anything big to announce to justify the expense of throwing what would then essentially just be a huge party. As the years elapsed and the IP catalogue grew, we just expected to be able to all meet up and geek out about our favorite games with both friends and likeminded strangers about to become friends. Later, COVID’s gathering restrictions led to a couple years with no BlizzCon, and then the socially distanced BlizzConline in 2022. Around the office, we’re still raving about that year’s pet cosplay contest. BlizzCon 2023 was the first one back in person, and we all agreed it felt phenomenal to be back, despite some production hiccups, particularly with the off-stream Darkmoon Faire.

Still, we’re concerned — and not just a little disappointed — considering this year marks the 30 year anniversary of the release of the original Warcraft RTS in November 1994, and the 20 year anniversary of the launch of World of Warcraft in November 2004. And yes, we’re all old as the hills, and you should probably look into a more moisturizing eye cream. Blizzard concluded their post acknowledging these milestones, and saying there would still be a celebration to commemorate them, but man is it not the same as the goosebumps from the thousands of live nerd screams in a darkened arena when Chris Metzen works the crowd. “Horde, where you at?”