Former World of Warcraft Team Lead Mark Kern believes that Microsoft and Blizzard Entertainment cancelled BlizzCon because the convention is losing the company money.
A screenshot from World of Warcraft: The War Within Alpha (2024), Blizzard
Blizzard Entertainment announced that BlizzCon 2024 had been cancelled in a blog post on April 25th. In the blog post, the company shared, “After careful consideration over the last year, we at Blizzard have made the decision not to hold BlizzCon in 2024. This decision was not made lightly as BlizzCon remains a very special event for all of us, and we know many of you look forward to it.”
“While we’re approaching this year differently and as we have explored different event formats in the past, rest assured that we are just as excited as ever to bring BlizzCon back in future years,” the company added.
A screenshot of the BlizzCon 2024 cancellation blog post
As you can see above the company did not provide an explanation for why the event was cancelled. However, Mark Kern speculates it’s because the event was not making the company any money and the company’s new owner Microsoft needs every part of its business to make money.
On X, Kern posted, “BlizzCon does not turn a profit, in fact we lost money on it every year. Blizzard saves a lot by cancelling it, esp when customer sentiment is so low and there is nothing to announce. Microsoft is cost cutting, because AAA is in bad shape.”
BlizzCon does not turn a profit, in fact we lost money on it every year.
Blizzard saves a lot by cancelling it, esp when customer sentiment is so low and there is nothing to announce.
Microsoft is cost cutting, because AAA is in bad shape.
— Grummz (@Grummz) April 25, 2024
He elaborated on this in an interview with Andrew Chapados on his UnAuthorized Opinions channel along with myself.
Kern stated, “The other thing that’s happening is even Microsoft’s affected. Microsoft and Blizzard cancelled BlizzCon this year. That’s unheard of. And BlizzCon never made money and it’s an extremely expensive show to produce. When I was there we didn’t make money on BlizzCon at all and it was always a huge expense, but you did it because it was a huge marketing event for the game and for the company.”
“And so BlizzCon is cancelled now and that’s Microsoft stepping in and saying, ‘Hey, no, we can’t lose money. Everything has to make money.’ And this is the current mentality in AAA games,” he asserted. “The current financial reality that they’re facing.”
A screenshot from World of Warcraft: The War Within Alpha (2024), Blizzard
What do you make of Kern’s explanation that BlizzCon was cancelled because the event loses money and companies like Microsoft and Blizzard have to earn money now?
