BlizzCon 2021 has been canceled, according to an announcement from BlizzCon’s executive producer Saralyn Smith via the BlizzCon site. The company plans to pick things back up early next year with a global event that will combine its recent online event, BlizzConline, with “smaller in-person gatherings.”

Smith said the COVID-19 pandemic and California’s changing safety guidelines are the reasons behind the sudden cancellation. Blizzard says that those issues left Blizzard and its partners uncertain that they would be able to put on an event on the level that fans expect by November.

This isn’t the first hit that the company has taken as of late. With the recent departure of Overwatch director, Jeff Kaplan and Overwatch lead character artist Renaud Galand, uncertainty seems to be the keyword for the company lately.

While Overwatch 2 is apparently on the horizon — Blizzard even released more information about the game just days ago — the string of bad news has left fans wondering what the future of the company looks like. IGN recently published a report about the state of the company, which outlines a list of pain points the company has endured over the past few years.

There may be even more information on the way for Overwatch and Diablo fans despite this cancellation, with the early 2022 show being confirmed via the same post by Smith. We expect more details on this online-physical hybrid event later this year.