By Sarah Parvini, Associated Press Technology Writer
Irvine, California (AP) – California Gaming Giant Blizzard Entertainment announced on Thursday that his popular event Blizzcon would come back after several years.
The celebration of all things, the Blizzard, which takes place in the Anaheim Convention Center, is planned for September 2026. Blizzard last held the event in 2023. Next year, BlizzCon will include staple foods such as the opening ceremony -the normally big game announcements as well as panels and other experiences.
Johanna Faries, President of Blizzard Entertainment, said that Blizzcon was part of Blizzard’s role as an entertainment company that extends beyond the limits of the games. BlizzCon, she said, was an entertainment platform and “an opportunity to create a different kind of assembly for players”.
“There are so many stories on an individual level, only at BlizzCon how people’s lives have changed: I met my partner there. Thanks to Blizzcon, I was finally able to connect with my son in a way that I couldn’t do before, ”said Faries. “We take this role very seriously.”
Faries discussed the growing popularity of gaming in pop culture and why the medium on Tuesday at the SXSW Film & TV Festival in Texas in Texas in Texas is at the top of the entertainment.
She recently spoke to the Associated Press.
The President of Blizzard Entertainment, Johanna Faries
Q: What do you think playing in the foreground in recent years?
A: I love it happened. I think it was really wonderful to observe this change in conversation and zeitgeist and understanding. Many of the things we are talking about is that it is really less, they know who a player is. It really is what plays at all times in time. I think the medium also begins to meet people on their conditions. If you are a casual player of a certain population group in a certain part of the world, there are games for you. If you only have so many hours a day to escape the “World of Warcraft”, there is a game for you. If you are a mobile player when you are a PC player if you both depend on the room in your house, you can be able to get to know you – and not just the platform or crossing progress, cross game.
This is part of where I think that the technology has contested this moment when the consumer experience has been made so personally, but also so ready and more likely. It is also part of why I am back to this intersection of the best of the best technologies, the best of the best of creativity, the best of the best in today’s entertainment, where we want to shape ourselves in the future, is really where playing is in the foreground compared to many other media.
Q: How has the gaming landscape changed from someone who may be more concentrated on Triple-A titles into a concentrated one in which the bandwidth is now operated?
A: The models have also changed and developed over time. I think there is a consumer appetite for a long form, short form, and I think so many skills that come into the sector to do this in a first-class way. I would also say what was really cool is how hybridized many of the play styles and game habits were.
Some of the most followed and renowned creators or streamers play several games, right? They are not a kind of one-off miracle, so to speak, even if they can have fluent possibilities in certain triple-A or Double-A or, as you know, how we would somehow attribute labels.
I myself play a lot of different games. Depends on my mood. Depends on how many hours do I have to spend in it? And I love the type of selection man that we could now deliver as an industry for consumers and do not think of people in a one -dimensional way.
Q: The video game industry has achieved more income worldwide than North American sports and films. Where do you see games and the gaming experience that fits a broader entertainment?
A: It helped that many of our well -known names are also enthusiastic players, right? They normalized the conversation when the Kansas City Chiefs are not on the field and play a lot of games. We have so many different known entertainment names in Hollywood, about film and music and fashion that look at fans of games. And that helps us combine points. It helps us to think about cooperation.
Q: How can you compensate for the use of AI with what the people who work on the games want?
A: You hit the nail on the head to obtain the word “balance”. We have wonderful talents of first -class talent, who always look at the best in technology, the best in tools to unlock their creative skills. I think we are really wonderful that we take a lens in it in which we are very principle, no matter what the new technology is. We have the same age and cross -functional groups that always talk about what the role of the new technology plays in our work, but how do we make sure that they come from scratch? It is DEV. It is devinated. These are really up -and -coming technologies, but in principle we have to be responsible, how we understand how we come to come together for new possibilities.
But what I love is that there is a real energy. That has always been part of it and the package about how Blizzard, I think Blizzard, in the game at the game position, turned to new technology. But we have a really good balance in absorbing what is new, but also from a basic person who can first think about players first to ensure that our employees feel good. Our games thrive. Here, too, we only give people the tools and the opportunity to do their best work.
Q: Dei was a very large topic of conversation because some companies have thrown these initiatives in the past few months. What role do you see how dei plays in your company?
A: I find it such a blessing that both Blizzard, but also playing in general since it was founded, was a diverse medium, and that is the lens that we would always think about. Not only at consumers and play levels in relation to our end results in the communities that we forge, but also with the people and the talent we want to recruit, keep and promote, and enable this organization. That was always when we operate from our best, it was always critical for our values and how we see the world.
I also think that one of the things that occur in conversations that is really important to me is that this value or the valent -based approach causes so much empathy into the stories that we create. Our worlds are nuanced and diverse. Our characters are nuanced and diverse. There is sensitivity to different skills, different backgrounds, different experiences. Nothing monolithic, nothing too obvious. And so we need people with different, differentiated experiences to tell and shape the stories that make us great. And that will always be the truth of how we will work.
Q: What can you tell me more about what we can expect from Blizzcon?
A: I’m just so excited to bring it back in autumn 2026, and I think the time is on our side. That was a large part of why we wanted to follow this longer lens approach to ensure that everyone comes with the best what we have to offer when we return to Anaheim. But back to the Anaheim Convention Center is also a key component for Blizzcon’s legacy, isn’t it?
It will be our 15th BlizzCon in Blizzard’s history. So that’s a mega moment for us. And I think we are only very energetic from the opportunity to not only bring it back, but also to increase it and really provide the expectations of people-to deliver, the players who play our games and have really high expectations of how BlizzCon has to look and feel for them, but also for our employees.
Originally published: March 12, 2025 at 2:36 p.m. Edt
