After several years away – and one goofy BlizzConline in 2021 – BlizzCon is finally back and in person as of today, though of course you can watch the bulk of the events online too, and given slow ticket sales, it seems a lot of gamers opted to do exactly that. The stream is free, too, which hasn’t always been in the case in past years: “Just like the Opening Ceremony, all panels and Community Night will be simulcast around BlizzCon, as well as live streamed for free to our virtual attendees,” the company says.
The opening ceremony is currently set to begin at 2 p.m. EDT, followed by the part of the show core MMORPG fans are most curious about: the What’s Next panel for World of Warcraft, during which we’re expecting to feast on expansion news. There are also a separate panel for WoW Classic, as well as panels for Overwatch 2, Hearthstone, and Warcraft Rumble (which launches today on the occasion), but Blizzard president Mike Ybarra has promised Warcraft will dominate the narrative – if not the floorspace. We’ll also be shocked if we don’t see a refreshed Chris Metzen bellowing, “For the Horde!”
Saturday will see deep-dive panels for all three main games, including a chonky 90-minute panel for WoW starting at 3 p.m. EDT. The sole Diablo IV panel is also positioned on the second day, so we’ll see whether the expansion leaks bear out, and there’s nothing for the NetEase-partnered Diablo Immortal or the in-development Blizzard survival game.
As we’ve noted, Blizzard has scrapped the fan-favorite live Q&A session for World of Warcraft in favor of soliciting questions from players and then choosing which ones to answer at a later stream. Diablo IV, however, is still planning a live Q&A segment at the end of Saturday’s Campfire Chat.
Click to zoom the show floor map
The streams themselves will go live on Twitch and YouTube (embedded below), starting with the opening ceremony. (If you click the YouTube thumbnail, it’ll show you how many minutes are left before it starts.)
Of course, no event happens in a vacuum, and Blizzard’s current circumstances are particularly weird, given that Activision-Blizzard was formally enveloped by the Microsoft conglomerate last month and its reviled CEO is finally on his way out. And the circumstances that led to the corporate buyout were… not ideal, as they stemmed from a broadly exposed culture of sexism and discrimination at both Blizzard and Activision, the bungled corporate response to which led to the rise of unionization within the company (and retaliation from executives). Just in 2023 alone, the World of Warcraft team was gutted by the casual dismissal of multiple staffers, plus we’ve seen layoffs at Hearthstone and significant player pushback on the antics of Overwatch 2 and Diablo IV. But you knew this because you’ve read the clip!
