While Blizzard Entertainment’s official All-Things-Starcraft-Warcraft-Diablo gaming convention is such a big deal, it seemed odd that they would NOT have one this year. After all, the media gaming giant has Heart of the Swarm (Starcraft2 Expansion), Mists of Pandaria (World of Warcraft Expansion) and Diablo 3 all being released this year. But in a side note in a Battle.net news post about the 2012 Battle.net World Championship event in Asia later this year, it was announced that they were skipping out on the wildly popular convention for 2012.

GamingBlend quotes the release:

“We’re excited to be showcasing Blizzard eSports on a truly global stage this year. We’re also heavily focused on getting Diablo III, [World of Warcraft expansion] Mists of Pandaria, and [Starcraft II expansion] 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.”

This baffles my mind. I know they said they want to focus on getting those games out this year so they are not doing the convention, but I don’t see the connection.

There is very little overlap of the people involved in making the convention happen and the people involved in actually finishing the game. One weekend off is not going to delay the game anymore than we already assume it will be!

Blizzard does not have a great track record for reaching initial release dates (Diablo3 was shown off at the last 4 years of Blizzcon) so if it did get shoved back no one is going to be surprised.

Maybe this is one of those things where an executive looked at the bank account and said “We don’t need the money” and a PR guy looked at all the online buzz about these products and agreed while noticing “We don’t need to advertise”

They will use Blizzcon on the years they have nothing to release to keep the buzz alive!