A few days ago, IGN revealed that Blizzard Entertainment is confirmed as a participant of their IGN Summer of Gaming.
(UPDATE: This thread is updated often as the schedule changes. Latest updates are at the bottom of this page.)
Today, IGN has revealed the IGN Summer of Gaming schedule. A little caveat, though. Blizzard Entertainment is nowhere to be seen in this schedule other than an interview with an ex-Blizzard developer who is promoting a video game.
That is definitely not “Blizzard Entertainment.”
So… where is Blizzard Entertainment then?
Ohhhh….. it is not where Blizzard Entertainment is in the schedule. It is what the schedule is not showing that features Blizzard Entertainment out of sight.
JUNE 24
Unannounced Classic Revival (Exclusive Game Reveal). Could this be Blizzard Entertainment? And if it is… is that… (drools)… Diablo II: Resurrected?
I read through all three images of the schedule again in case I missed anything.
Blizzard Entertainment is not listed anywhere in the schedule. There are some game reveals in the schedule listed under a specific developer studios. Other game reveals have no developer studios specified.
So any of these four unannounced games could be Blizzard Entertainment. Even more than one.
These are the ones that might be hiding Blizzard Entertainment as the developer studios:
June 5 — Unannounced Game Reveal (exclusive reveal trailer). No developer studios listed.June 15 — Unannounced Game Reveal (exclusive reveal trailer). No developer studios listed.June 18 — Unannounced Game. Developer interview and exclusive gameplay deep-dive. No developer studios listed.June 24 — Unannounced Classic Revival (exclusive game reveal). No developer studios listed.
UPDATE: It is possible none of those 4 unannounced games are “Blizzard” — IGN says in the announcement: “You can check out the entire schedule at the bottom of this story, and in the slideshow below – but remember that it’s evolving, with new games and developers joining the roster all the time. We can also say that you’ll see the likes of Arcade1Up, Blizzard, EA, Facebook/Oculus, Google Stadia, Square Enix, Ubisoft and Xbox appearing as part of Summer of Gaming, but those showings have not yet had their dates confirmed. Make sure to check back regularly for all the latest additions.“
Full Partial schedule was announced by IGN.
UPDATE (June 5): This schedule is now outdated as some slots have been cancelled due to the global civil protests.
MAY 30 UPDATE
The Summer Game Fest (not the IGN event) has updated their schedule. Blizzard Entertainment IS NOT listed here, but I still need to bring it up to you.
On June 4 at 4pm ET/1pm PT, as I mentioned a few hours ago, SONY will reveal gameplay of several games on the PS5 for at least an hour. If (theoretically) each game had a 5-minute spotlight, that would be nearly 12 games. We are too far away from Diablo 4 shipping — but:
- June 2020 marks the Diablo II 20th Anniversary
- Blizzard already showed us a playable demo at BlizzCon 2019
Therefore, it is not too far-fetched to imagine that Blizzard Entertainment would use this opportunity to show off a Diablo 4 gameplay update. Improbable, I must admit, but not impossible. For now it is safe to keep your skepticism up a few notches. But be alert.
On June 6 at 3pm ET / 12pm PT, PCGamer’s PC Gaming Show will air at the Summer Game Fest. Their schedule says: “A look at upcoming PC Games and announcements.” PCGamer and Blizzard Entertainment have been very close for several years in terms of exclusives and interviews. That’s another venue to keep an eye on even if with a lot of skepticism.
This is how the schedule looked like a few days ago:
This is how the schedule looks like right now (as of May 30):
Why do we need to be open minded about this second game event? Because as you can see in their “Participating Publishers” section, the Blizzard Entertainment logo is right there — which means that Blizzard is a participant of the Summer Game Fest, too — in addition to the IGN Summer of Games event.
Again, I am not saying there WILL be announcements of Diablo 4 or Diablo II: Resurrected. I am just alerting you the facts: Blizzard Entertainment is an official participant of two online gaming events on the exact month that Diablo II turns 20 years old. Special thanks to Rhykker — I just watched his Saturday video where he highlights this article.
JUNE 2 UPDATE
The IGN Summer of Gaming has been postponed until June 8 due to the civil unrest across the USA. The schedule hasn’t been updated to reflect this decision. I’ll update @blizzplanetcom as soon as any changes are made.
JUNE 4 UPDATE
The IGN Summer of Gaming page has been modified. The images have been removed, and the horizontal widget removed. The schedule is now conventional text.
The scheduled events that haven’t been identified with a game title or a developer might or not refer to Blizzard Entertainment. So keep an eye on them just in case there is a reveal.
June 11 – 2:15pm — Unannounced Game Reveal – Exclusive Reveal Trailer
June 15 – 12:30pm PT — Unannounced Game Reveal – Exclusive Reveal Trailer
June 18 — Unannounced – Developer Interview and Exclusive Gameplay Deep-Dive (Gameplay)
June 24 — Unannounced Game Reveal – Exclusive Reveal Trailer
June 24 — Unannounced Game – Exclusive Gameplay
Something of interest is that while Blizzard Entertainment has been confirmed as a participant, as of June 5, Blizzard is nowhere in the schedule. There are only two possibilities here:
a) Blizzard might be added at a later date.
b) Blizzard might be hidden within these unannounced game/no-developer schedule slots on purpose.
JUNE 8 UPDATE
We can now discard the June 13 PCGamer’s PCGaming Show. Blizzard isn’t participating in their show as per the press release sent to me.
LOS ANGELES, CA / ACCESSWIRE / June 8, 2020 / It's almost here! The PC Gaming Show will broadcast from Los Angeles on Saturday June 13 with the biggest lineup of exclusive trailers, interviews, and reveals in the event's six-year history. Revealed now is a lineup of the show's more than two dozen participants, excluding some special surprises.
As in years past, the PC Gaming Show will consist of world-exclusive trailers, gameplay reveals, announcements and interviews. Highlights include an exclusive interview with Rocketwerkz founder Dean Hall about his next project; a first look at Surgeon Simulator 2; the debut of a new trailer from New Blood Interactive; a special surprise for Torchlight 3 fans; and several new trailers from Humble Games.
This year's supersized lineup includes more than 50 games, featuring:
2K Games (Mafia: Definitive Edition)
Amazon Games (New World)
Atlus
Battlestate Games (Escape From Tarkov)
Bossa Studios (Surgeon Simulator 2)
Brace Yourself Games
Coffee Stain Studios
DONTNOD
Funcom
FJRD
Frontier Developments
Glumberland (Ooblets)
Humble Games
New Blood Interactive
Merge Games
Modus Games
Mythical
Perfect World (Torchlight 3, Remnant: From the Ashes)
The Wandering Band
Rebellion
Red Sails Team
Rocketwerkz
ROCKFISH Games (Everspace 2)
SEGA
Tripwire Interactive
WolfEye Studios (Weird West)
XSEED Games
Yaza Games
**And more surprise announcements
"With this year's PC Gaming Show, we still wanted to deliver on the spectacle and level of production that gamers expect from gaming press conferences," says Evan Lahti, Global Editor-in-Chief at PC Gamer, a subsidiary of Future PLC. "We're not going to just show people a two-hour Zoom call with some video games in it. We want this to be a unique and fun moment for PC gaming."
In previous years, the PC Gaming Show has been broadcast live from 700-seat theaters in Los Angeles. With new health and physical distancing considerations in mind, this year's event will mix live and pre-recorded elements from a new studio setting.
Our production team has found new ways to tell stories about the most exciting games being made on PC, and we believe the results will exceed PC gamers' expectations.
Starting from scratch inside a LA sound stage, enabled the PC Gaming Show team to create playful sets for the show's two hosts, Sean "Day9" Plott and Frankie Ward, to inhabit. The production features two virtual sets, including a custom-built physical set to create a thematic throughline between the show's dozens of segments. Also included for the first time will be gaming celebrity cameos, influencer commentary, and the introduction of a mystery co-host.
Viewers across all platforms will be able to see selected comments inserted directly into the broadcast live via Hovercast, a powerful cross-platform interactivity platform.
Intel returns to the PC Gaming Show to debut a custom PC build themed on one of this year's featured games. One lucky fan will have a chance to win this incredible rig at a later date.
Watch the PC Gaming Show on twitch.tv/pcgamer or youtube.com/pcgamer on Saturday, June 13 at 11 AM Pacific.
In addition, the IGN Summer of Gaming schedule has been updated again today. Blizzard Entertainment is still missing in the schedule. Unless they make a surprise announcement giving them a schedule slot — we have to go to default assumption — that one or more of the schedule slots listed without a game-title nor a developer-name might be Blizzard hidden in plain sight.
June 8 (evening) — upon closer inspection of the schedule update there are some strange changes.
NEW SCHEDULE
June 11, 2:15pm 11:30am PT — IGN Expo #2 — Unannounced Game Reveal — Exclusive Reveal Trailer (no developer)
June 11, 1pm PT — PS5 event (gameplay for various games)
June 15, 12:30pm PT — IGN Expo #4 — Unannounced Game Reveal — Exclusive Reveal Trailer (no developer) AND Unannounced Game Reveal — Exclusive Beta Reveal Trailer (no developer)
June 18 — Unannounced — Developer interview and Exclusive Gameplay Deep-Dive (no developer).
June 24 (no time) — Unannounced Game Reveal — Exclusive Reveal Trailer (no developer) AND Unannounced Game – Exclusive Gameplay (no developer).
Strange… because they removed the Classic Revival term from the schedule. Suspicious.
JUNE 9 UPDATE
As shown in the schedule that was updated June 8 (above) — I marked in red text two new updates to the schedule:
- The Unannounced Game Reveal — Exclusive Reveal Trailer for June 11 has been moved from 2:15pm PT to now 11:30am PT
- A brand-new Unannounced Game Reveal – Exclusive Beta Reveal Trailer (no developer) has been added to June 15, 12:30pm PT.
JUNE 10 UPDATE
IamBlueLink (fan) informs me someone from IGN responded to his question during the IGN Summer of Gaming Twitch livestream. I can’t confirm this, but if this is true? … this going to generate a backlash.
Basically, the only time Blizzard is mentioned in the schedule is Brian Fargo discussing the founding of Blizzard.
When IamBlueLink asked IGN if that’s it for Blizzard? — meaning is that all you are going to show from Blizzard… IGN responded: Yup.
There is some room for misunderstanding here due to context, but if this is true, I foresee reddit and other communities going berserk.
From the very beginning, IGN listed Blizzard Entertainment as a participant of the IGN Summer of Gaming event.
If Brian Fargo is all there is to be in the IGN Summer of Gaming — concerning Blizzard Entertainment, that is sooooooooooo misleading.
Brian Fargo is the founder of Interplay. He is never been a Blizzard Entertainment employee. His Linkedin page doesn’t even mention Blizzard. At some point in the beginnings of Silicon & Synapses, there was interaction between Brian Fargo, Allen Adham and Mike Morhaime to work on a video game; and obviously early Blizzard games used Interplay for the mac version. That doesn’t qualify Brian Fargo as “Blizzard Entertainment” in the IGN Summer of Gaming Lineup.
I will update whether IGN clarify this.
Blizzard Entertainment has my contact info and some developers and Community Managers follow @blizzplanetcom on Twitter. No one has corrected me about Blizzard being a participant of IGN Summer of Gaming.
Note: I have sent a message to the IGN editor. Shortly after doing so, I have also reached out to a Blizzard PR contact. Waiting response.
JUNE 11 UPDATE
(12:18pm ET) — No response yet from IGN editor or Blizzard PR.
Summer Game Fest sent a newsletter to alert the following:
Geoff Keighley’s 1 hour pre-show on YouTube begins at Noon PT / 3 pm ET, followed by the livestream event at 4 pm ET / 1 pm PT. Blizzard won’t likely be here, but Diablo 4 most likely coming to PS5 in the future anyway.
JUNE 14 UPDATE
The PCGamer’s PC Gaming Show had no Blizzard Entertainment content.
You can watch the VOD here.
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