This was the first in-person BlizzCon since 2019. The major reason for the start of that four-year gap should be obvious; the convention was canceled in 2020 and was online only in 2021 due to the pandemic. Plans for a 2022 edition were scrapped in part due to the scandal and the lawsuit, though. The details in that suit, which was filed in the summer of 2021 and is still ongoing, are shocking, and allege a corporate culture that was disgustingly hostile towards women. The suit led to the company firing or disciplining dozens of employees, and incited multiple walkouts and protests by Activision Blizzard employees. Despite employees calling for his removal and signaling no confidence in his leadership, Kotick has somehow retained his position throughout, but he is set to leave the company at the start of 2024. Many who were in positions of power throughout Activision and Blizzard are still there, though, and California’s lawsuit remains active.
You wouldn’t know any of that happened if you visited BlizzCon 2023. Blizzard’s fans seemed as passionate and dedicated as ever, with palpable excitement on the show floor and long lines for almost every booth. On the ground, in the convention center, even while walking through hotels and restaurants near the show, Blizzard fans appeared to be having a wonderful time. They cheered loudly and often at the opening press conference, where new games, characters, and expansions were announced. They stood in long lines to buy Blizzard merch or take interactive photos with CGI videogame characters. Cosplay was abundant, with elaborate recreations of the costumes of Overwatch and World of Warcraft characters. At one point a small platoon of show-goers wearing what looked like identical plush onesies mobbed the front of the convention center, performing a BlizzCon tradition known as the “March of the Murlocs.” Based on the size of the crowd taking photos and videos, it’s apparently a very popular part of the BlizzCon experience. A show-closing concert by LE SSERAFIM, a K-pop band who are part of a cross-promotion with Overwatch, was a big celebration that felt like a triumphant exclamation point on a seemingly successful show.
The only notable boos during the opening ceremony came during the sole mention of Diablo Immortal, a mobile game whose announcement at BlizzCon 2018 was infamously met with an uproar by the fans in attendance, and whose 2022 launch affirmed fears that it would be a typical mobile game built around predatory microtransactions. Other than that every presenter at the press conference and everything they presented was met with riotous applause by a fanbase that had clearly missed the sense of community and camaraderie they felt at shows like BlizzCon.
Shortly after the convention ended, though, complaints about BlizzCon started to grow across social media and Reddit. Long-time attendees groused about this installment’s smaller size and higher cost compared to the past. One frequent complaint was about how poorly organized the event was, with confusing signage, unclear processes, and insufficient crowd management; this was readily apparent to anybody actually at the show, and frequently noted in negative recaps of the event. Some who bought a high-end, more expensive pass that was supposed to come with a variety of benefits and upgrades felt ripped off. Granted, today’s internet is almost exclusively a dumping ground for grievances, and nobody hates something more than its biggest fans these days. But these are people so loyal to Blizzard that they spent large amounts of money to travel to this celebration despite all of the company’s problems, and they still left unsatisfied. They might be a vocal minority, but they’ve shaped the post-BlizzCon 2023 narrative, and not in a positive light.
BlizzCon is the most prominent gaming convention dedicated to a single studio. (It might be the only one at this point.) It’s a shame it cares far more about the company’s name and intellectual property than the actual people who create the games that made Blizzard what it is. Corporations don’t make games; people do. And why should anybody celebrate a corporation? Corporations don’t care about their employees, they don’t care about their customers, and they only start to act like they do when their reputation is in so much peril that it might substantially impact their revenue. Corporations only care about making money, whether it’s through underpaying and overworking employees, creating new and increasingly predatory ways to squeeze more funds out of customers for games they’ve already paid for, or charging hundreds of dollars a ticket for a poorly planned convention that preys on the passion of fans. The most entertaining and interesting parts of BlizzCon 2023 were the ones created by the fans themselves, from the cosplay to that Murloc meet-up. Let’s have a convention where we celebrate people—the artists who actually make these games, and the fans who build a community around them—instead of the corporations and execs that exploit them both. It may not be big enough to fill convention centers or feature concerts from pop stars, but it’d be a much better use of time and money.
Senior editor Garrett Martin writes about videogames, comedy, travel, theme parks, wrestling, and anything else that gets in his way. He’s also on Twitter @grmartin.
