Well, big news from our favorite developer here–reported by IndustryGamers, Blizzard will not be hosting a BlizzCon this year, and instead will be hosting a Battle.net eSporting Championship in Asia.
I can’t help but feel a little bit betrayed by this. Sure, there’s tons of money to be made in Asia, but what about some love for the states, which we clearly don’t have. Even though I’ve never been to a BlizzCon, I’m pretty upset about this. This shows a pretty big shift in focus that Blizzard/Activision (yeah, we can’t leave them out of this) is willing to shut down arguably one of the biggest events in gaming each year to instead focus on an event in a country that a signficant of people who would have attended BlizzCon can’t get to.
In light of recent departures on the Diablo 3 team, the reworking of coresystems after 5 years in development, and the lack of a release date, the future of Diablo 3 is pretty unclear in my mind. Combined with a shifted focus to Asia markets and what gamers will undoubtedly translate as a slap in the face with the cancellation of BlizzCon, I can’t help but think, What are they thinking?
There’s no way this can seem like a good idea in my mind. So much uncertainty surrouding key franchises, and they choose to just ignore it and go play in Asia for a while.
Ouch Blue, Ouch.
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