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[Update #2]: The Blizzcon Online convention will also be entirely free to watch this February.

[Update]: Blizzard's massive Blizzcon Online convention will be taking place from February 19-20, 2021.

Given the current ban on large public gatherings, and the low chance of things changing in the coming months, Blizzard has now decided to officially cancel BlizzCon 2020. As expected, they will be transitioning the whole event to an online format, though this won't be easy or fast given the current state of things.

"We’d want to do this as soon as we could, but given that this is new-ish territory and the different factors involved, it will most likely be sometime early next year," reads the official announcement. "BlizzCon is also a stage for big esports events in Blizzard games each year, so we’re also looking into alternatives for supporting some of the high-level competition that would normally take place at the show."

"We’re feeling deeply disappointed about this decision, and imagine many of you will feel the same. I truly love BlizzCon, and I know that’s a sentiment shared by everyone at Blizzard. We will sorely miss connecting with so many of you at the convention and 'recharging our geek batteries' this fall. But we will meet again!"

To be perfectly honest, this is probably for the best because this year's BlizzCon would mostly just consist of extra information about games we already know are coming - all things that can be handled perfectly fine through a couple of online events. The only things I'll truly miss are the developer interviews and presentations, as those do lose a fair bit of charm when they're prerecorded and carefully curated. That said, I do wonder what Blizzard will add instead in order to replicate that BlizzCon atmosphere, especially considering they're taking a bit of extra time in order to get everything ready.

We'll likely have to wait until next year for an answer to that question, so for now, you can read a little bit more about BlizzCon's cancellation and Blizzard's reasoning over at the official website.