Blizzard Skips Out on Gamescom to Focus on Development
Blizzard has announced that they will not have a booth presence this year at gamescom. There will however still be Blizzard merch available at the gamescom shop.
This is interesting for a couple of reasons. To start, Blizzard's presence at gamescom was a way to bring some of the BlizzCon vibes across the ocean into the hands of those that don't want to make the trip. The really important point though is it looks like they just won't have anything to announce in late August (21 - 24). For us Hearthstone fans that isn't much of a problem, we've got an expansion that releases in early August, but other titles historically have received some big news from Blizzard at the event. World of Warcraft's Legion expansion was one such announcement that was made at gamescom 2015 in addition to some TGT card reveals.
Thanks to Wowhead for the tip.
Quote from BlizzardAs part of a renewed effort this year to maintain our focus on development, for our current games and our future projects, we won’t have a booth at gamescom 2019. The show is an important one for the European and global gaming community, and we’re going to miss meeting players in Cologne this year. You’ll still be able to find Blizzard gear in the gamescom 2019 shop area, and we’re looking forward to returning to the gamescom show floor in the future. We’re also looking forward to sharing more details about the projects we’re currently working on when the time is right.
Ha... original.
So no Diablo: Immortal? :( ;)
Sounds like a valid decision to me. Although the excuse given might not reflect reality, it's much more preferable to doing something as a tradition for the sake of tradition. So what if they have been there in all past years? If they have nothing to showcase, and considering the backlash they got this year, they shouldn't show up unless they have something impactful to show.
Plus, historically it's almost certain that even if they were to participate, people would chastise them either way for not presenting a new game, patch, expansion etc...
Good choice, no announcement, no disappointment.
Let's see what's next at
ActivisionconBlizzcon in November.In my opinion it's a good decision, even if it wouldn't be for development purposes. I don't see much reason for big companies to go to "trade shows" with smaller ones when they can afford to run their own keynote and let the viewers have a better one to one experience. Look at Sony, which skipped E3. A lot of large electronic companies are doing very well when they do their own streamed presentations. Ex: Apple, Samsung, OnePlus, etc. Makes it easier to stand out, and they don't have to deal with competition next door.
If they think it important to save money on such an event, their properties must be seriously underperforming financially.
because it's usually a team of developers that's standing in the booth :)
They fired a lot of their non-developers earlier this year, so they may simply not have enough people left to do events like this regularly.
I would abandon the EU as well if I could. Unfortunately, I live in it.
Focusing on quality mobile games for Asian market.
This is definitely hopeful news.
It's about time Blizz makes less announcements and more quality releases.
I hope we will see the results of this development very soon
they're probably working on Hearthstone mobile next
oh wait
OMG! I gotta get a phone now.
xD
tournament mode died for this
Whatever, if next update is just generic expansion with 130+ cards, where only 20 of them are playable, then what is the point. Make something new, change game somehow,add more complexity, new modes, achievements,etc...
you realise that Blizzard makes more games than just Hearthstone, right?
Barely anymore.
Ros has the most viable cards out of any expansion lol