The pandemic canceled BlizzCon 2021, and it appears that a planned online event next year from Blizzard will also be a scratch. An uncredited blog post says, “We’ve decided to take a step back and pause on planning the previously announced BlizzConline event scheduled for early next year.”
It didn’t specifically cite a reason, but after revelations surfaced about a company culture rife with sexual harassment and discrimination, the last several months have seen an employee walkout, the departure of president J. Allan Brack, and several competing investigations.
Most recently, Blizzard renamed the cowboy hero in Overwatch to Cole Cassidy. The employee the character got his name from was one of several high-profile departures following the filing of a sexual harassment lawsuit. He was also pictured in a room dubbed the “Cosby Suite” during an earlier BlizzCon event.
Now, Blizzard says that it still sees a role for BlizzCon in communicating with its players, saying after 16 years, “we would also like to take the time to reimagine what a BlizzCon event of the future could look like.”
