2020 has been quite a hectic year. Going into 2020 it was full of excitement, especially for the video game industry. We knew that both Sony and Microsoft had plans to bring out their next-generation video game console platform. However, early on into the year, the world was hit with a pandemic. You all know about the coronavirus at this point and it’s a bit surreal to think that just months ago we’re covering on whether an event would close its doors due to the influx of infected. Now that we’re in the second half of the year, it’s more or less a game to see if events will return to normal by 2021.
Still, this worldwide health pandemic outbreak has caused so many changes in our everyday lives. The way we go out into the public now wearing masks and gloves to even jobs being transitioned remotely. Any event and expo you planned to attend this year have been thrown out much like BlizzCon. It’s never a fun thing to see your plans get cancelled but with a virus that’s proven to be incredibly problematic and easily transmittable, there are likely quite a few attendees that didn’t plan on going regardless.
BlizzCon may have been cancelled this year, but don’t count it out for 2021. Instead, during an investors call from Activision, Blizzard president J. Allen Brack has stated that they are working to bring out an online event early in 2021. This will allow the development teams the ability to showcase what projects they have been working on and some updates on already unveiled projects. Although, Brack doesn’t state just what all we can expect form this event.
Outside of knowing that the BlizzCon virtual event may be a thing in 2021, we don’t know what content would be showcased and how it will play out. There have been virtual events that lined up with BlizzCon in the past so we could see this being a rather easy alternative already to set up, but just how long the event will take place and what tickets will cost remains to be seen.
This is by far the norm right now for the video game industry. We’re seeing more companies take to the internet to showcase either live streams or pre-recorded footage of content for fans. In a sense, E3 2020 may have been cancelled physically, but the streaming alternative is going a lot longer than what was originally planned for the large media conferences.
