BlizzCon 2019 dates and collectibles announced

The BlizzCon 2019 dates have been announced as 1st-2nd November, and the show will take place at the usual Anaheim Convention Centre spot just over the road from Disneyland.

No particular content has been announced for BlizzCon 2019, beyond the usual assortment of tournaments for Blizzard games, but the hope is 2019 will be the year of Diablo 4 (and not Diablo Immortal - shh Bertie, don't bring it up).

"BlizzCon has served as a home away from home for the Blizzard community, a place where online friends can meet up in real life and new friendships are formed," Blizzard's newish president J. Allen Brack said. "We're looking forward to welcoming everyone to the show this year, reconnecting, celebrating, and sharing some of our latest developments."

The rather fetching collectibles this year, included with the ticket price, celebrate 25 years of the original Warcraft game (recently re-released on GOG), and you can choose either a bold footman (boo hiss) or an orc grunt (woo yay).

There will be some new BlizzCon Pregame Festivities outside the convention centre on the eve of the show this year, too, apparently - "a fun and casual get-together".

But it's an expensive business going to BlizzCon. The tickets alone cost an arm and a leg, ignoring hotels, food and flights. Standard entry is $230 for the weekend, and you'll probably end up spending as much again on the enormous array of merch created for the show - I have never seen a bigger merch shop than the gigantic hall-filling BlizzCon 2018 store, and I have never seen bigger bags than those people were filling, frantically, while there.

Or you can upgrade your ticket to the $550 Portal Pass, new this year, which gets you priority entry and parking, and a lounge you can chill in with Blizzard devs, plus evening-before entry to the Darkmoon Faire area in the show - where there are loads of shops for spending yet more money.

And if you've really got cash to burn, you can fork out the $750 for the Benefit Dinner and hobnob with Blizz developers and presumably some VIPs, although this is a charity do and proceeds go to a good cause so it's a special case.

But if you can't afford all that, and I'm surprised anyone can, then you can watch from afar using the Virtual Ticket, which nets you televised access to various stages at the show, and an array of in-game goodies. Maybe the UK will win the Overwatch World Cup this year? You never know.