After confirming that BlizzCon, its usual dedicated convention would be going digital back in August, Blizzard has revealed that BlizzConline will be held from February 19 to February 20 of next year. From the sounds of it, it will be mostly for showcasing fan creations, rather than the usual hands-on time fans tend to get at the standard event.
In a post on the event’s website, Blizzard confirmed that it will be hosting contests for fan creations in cosplay, art, fan writing, and even a talent show. If you’d like to take part in any of the above you can check out the rules on Blizzard’s site, but keep in mind that the deadline for entry for each of them is January 4.
While that’s all that’s really discussed in the original post, there will still likely be new looks at upcoming games, including Diablo 4 and Overwatch 2, both of which were revealed at last year’s Blizzcon. Even without chance to play demos that would have normally come from the event.
I’m an easy man to please, so upon hearing that BlizzCon is taking place in some form, all I really want to see is Soldier: 76’s Overwatch 2 redesign. Yeah, some people want a release date for the sequel, but nobody knows when it’s coming so I will take the crumbs I can get. And the only crumb I want, scratch that, need is to see my gay, grumpy granddad in all his updated glory. Regardless of whatever it entails, I’d expect Overwatch 2’s original BlizzCon showcase to have included another animated short along the lines of the ones Blizzard has been releasing for years, including the sequel’s reveal last year, along with reveals of new characters, updated looks, and a more thorough look at its story campaign and new competitive modes.
As for Diablo 4? I don’t know, dungeon crawling something or other.
Most recently, Blizzard has been holding an in-game event for Overwatch starring Tracer, which includes new skins and other cosmetics, as well as kicked off a five-part comic series starring the time-manipulating hero herself. It will conclude a week from today on September 28, with the comic series planned to continue through the year.
In other news:
- Skullgirls and Indivisible Devs Form Future Club, a Co-op Structured Studio
- Cyberpunk 2077 Stream Highlights Night City, PC Specs, and Racial Stereotypes
- Everybody Shut Up, Mass Effect Remasters Have Been Listed by a Portuguese Retailer
Blizzcon 2020 was one of several victims of the coronavirus pandemic when it came to industry events, and one of the handful that decided for an online replacement now that BlizzConline is officially a thing. From Tokyo Game Show to E3, pretty much every social gathering in video games has had to take a year off. Many of these were either replaced with an online alternative, or became part of Geoff Keighley’s amalgamation of all these trade shows called Summer Game Fest, which, I think is technically over now? Not that Geoff has stopped being an arbiter for video game news, including pieces of Sony’s PlayStation 5 reveal that the company elected not to inform people about in its own show.
