Blizzard Entertainment dropped the bomb. There’s no BlizzCon 2012 this year due to their three-game release tight schedules: Heart of the Swarm, Diablo III and Mists of Pandaria.
The StarCraft II and World of Warcraft Championships will have a stand-alone event held in Asia at the end of this year.
Blizzard Entertainment is proud to announce the 2012 Battle.net World Championship, a major global eSports event featuring some of the best pro-gaming competition in the world. Slated to take place in Asia toward the end of 2012, the Battle.net World Championship will host this year’s StarCraft II and World of Warcraft Arena World Championship tournaments. Blizzard gamers and eSports fans from around the world will be invited to attend and witness some of the most skilled pro players on the planet battle it out for cash and glory.
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.
Talking with Blizzplanet Network Manager Eldorian, we are both sad pandas after hearing this news. Just a few days ago, he got the cash to cost the trip that’s no longer in the foreseeable horizon. I was personally expecting the BlizzCon 2012 dates to be revealed at the upcoming Activision Blizzard Q4 2011 Conference Call like in times past it’s happened.
Moving on forward after the heartbreaking news, we were just talking about the announcement of the Next-Gen MMO. It usually takes Blizzard about 2-3 years to ship a game after it’s first announcement. With BlizzCon 2013 usually all the way back at the fourth quarter, that would mean we wouldn’t be playing the Next-Gen MMO until about 5 years from now.
During our short chat about this topic, Eldorian told me they might announce the Next-Gen MMO at the 2012 Battle.net World Championship. Reflecting on that thought, I remembered StarCraft II was first announced on May 19th at the 2007 Blizzard Worldwide Invitationals (WWI) in Seoul, South Korea and the game shipped 1159 days after its announcement; and Diablo III was first announced on June 28 at the 2008 Blizzard Worldwide Invitationals in Paris, France. It’s been 576 days since Blizzard Entertainment announced Diablo III. No release date is available at the moment.
It’s true. The unannounced games don’t need to be unveiled at BlizzCon. There’s still hope for the Next-Gen MMO. Could late 2012 be the year of the Next-Gen MMO announcement?
Yeah, they really “set us up the bomb” on this one. 😉
But it makes sense when you think about it: by next fall (which is usually when Blizzcon takes place), Diablo will be out, HotS will most likely be out as well, and MoP will probably be just around the corner.
It’s too early to talk about the other two projects or the next expansions of the three current games, so they wouldn’t have much to say at Blizzcon, not to mention the hassle it is to prepare such an event given how busy three releases are going to make them.
On the other hand, Blizzcon 2013 is shaping up to be truly epic.
Looks like 2013 will be when we get more info on “Titan”