Virtual BlizzCon Event Will Be Much More Accessible Than In Previous Years

The COVID-19 pandemic has been bad news for conventions of all kinds, and earlier this year, Blizzard announced that its yearly BlizzCon event would not only be delayed because of the pandemic, but also held entirely online. Typically, BlizzCon happens right around this time each year, at the beginning of November. Because of the pandemic, what would have been BlizzCon 2020 will now be held in February as an all online event called BlizzConline.

BlizzConline is slated to go down on February 19th and 20th, and today, Blizzard boss J. Allen Brack revealed some good news for those hoping to watch it live: the entire event will be free to watch when it livestreams next year. Brack revealed the news in the latest Fireside Chat, which you can see embedded below.

While the news that BlizzConline will be free to watch might be a little strange at first blush – many other events that were pushed online because of the pandemic have been free to watch, after all – this isn't usually the case for BlizzCon. Typically, Blizzard charges for online access to BlizzCon through all-access virtual tickets, which cost around $50.

So, for BlizzConline, you'll be able to watch the whole show without ponying up any cash ahead of time. What can we expect from BlizzConline? First and foremost, we can probably expect more news about Overwatch 2 and Diablo 4, both of which were announced at BlizzCon last year. With Naxxramas going live in WoW Classic next month, we might also hear about what's next for that game, including confirmation of whether or not Blizzard will be adding The Burning Crusade expansion to it

In this fireside chat, Brack says that Blizzard will be "channeling as much of the BlizzCon spirit as we can into an online, virtual celebration." So, in addition to news about Blizzard's upcoming and new games, we can also expect some community aspects as well. We'll keep our eyes peeled for more details about the event, so stay tuned for that.