New info teased for BlizzCon, which will take place online later this month

YouTube

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic means that the next BlizzCon event will be held entirely online, and more happily it also means that the whole thing will be free for everyone. The two-day event will run February 19-20, and today Blizzard shared more details about what viewers can look forward to.

BlizzCononline, as it's formally known, will kick off at 2 pm PT/5 pm ET on February 19 with an opening ceremony that will include a look at some of the new "game content" currently in development. After that, the event will split into six different, themed channels for roughly three hours of deeper dives into specific games.

Day two will pick up at 12 pm PT/3 pm ET, again with multiple channels, which will include Q&A sessions and player community spotlights featuring outstanding Community Showcase cosplay entries and winners, plus movie, talent, and art contests and exhibitions.

If you're a big Blizzard fan, there's no need to worry too much about choosing what you're going to watch and what you're going to skip during the show: All events will be posted in the BlizzCon video archives after they air, and will be viewable for free there as well.

2021 marks the 30th anniversary of Blizzard Entertainment, which was originally founded by Mike Morhaime, Frank Pearce, and Allen Adham as Silicon and Synapse in 1991, and to commemorate the big birthday Blizzard has also released a trio of "Celebration Collections" of in-game swag in the Blizzard Shop:

The Essentials Pack:

Moon-Touched Netherwhelp pet for World of Warcraft®
Tracer’s OSV-03 Rogue mount with Tracer Hero in Heroes of the Storm®
30th Anniversary Overwatch® player icon and spray (coming soon)* plus 5 Loot Boxes
A set of StarCraft® II and StarCraft: Remastered portraits commemorating three decades of Blizzard (coming soon)*
10 Madness at the Darkmoon Faire™ card packs for Hearthstone®
A pet and portrait for Diablo® III (coming soon)*

The Heroic Pack:

Everything in the Essentials Pack, plus:
Snowstorm mount for World of Warcraft
Raynhardt (legendary) in Overwatch (coming soon)*
Random Madness at the Darkmoon Faire Legendary card in Hearthstone
Diablo III wings (coming soon)*

Image 1 of 7

Blizzard 30th anniversary in-game items — (Image credit: Blizzard)

The Epic Pack:

Everything in the Heroic Pack, plus:
30 days of World of Warcraft game time
5 Golden Madness at the Darkmoon Faire card packs in Hearthstone
3 Golden Loot Boxes for Overwatch
Diablo III Helm Transmog Items (coming soon)

Blizzard said that other anniversary-related activities will take place "during and around" BlizzCon—a detailed scheduled of events will be announced closer to kickoff. Until then, you can keep tabs on what's what at blizzcon.com.

PRODUCTS

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.