°µÍø½ûÇø

Johanna Faries, president of Blizzard Entertainment, said BlizzCon is part of Blizzard's role as an entertainment company that stretches beyond the boundaries of making games. BlizzCon, she said, is an entertainment platform and “an opportunity to create a different kind of gathering well for gamers.�

“There are so many stories at an individual level, just at BlizzCon alone, about how people’s lives were changed: I met my partner there. I finally could bond with my son in a way that I couldn’t before, thanks to BlizzCon,� said Faries. “We take that role very seriously.�

Faries discussed gaming's growing popularity in pop culture, and why the medium is at the forefront of entertainment, with comedian Conan O’Brien at the SXSW Film & TV Festival in Texas on Tuesday.

She recently spoke with The Associated Press.

Q: What do you think it is about the last few years that has propelled gaming to the forefront?

A: I love that it's happened. I think it’s been really just wonderful to also witness that change in conversation and zeitgeist and understanding. A lot of the things we talk about now is it’s really less about, you know, who is a gamer. It’s really what is anyone playing at any given moment in time. This also goes back to, I think, that the medium is starting to meet people on their terms. If you’re a casual gamer of a certain demographic in a certain part of the world, there’s games for you. If you only have so many hours in a day to be able to expend escaping into the “World of Warcraft,� there’s a game for you. If you’re a mobile player, if you’re a PC player, if you’re both depending on the room in your house, there’s a way for us to be able to meet you — and not only cross platform or cross progression, cross play.

That’s part of where I think the technology has met this moment of making the consumer experience so personal to them, but also so ready made and more immediate. It’s also part of why again, I go back to, I think, this intersection of the best of the best in technology, the best of the best in creativity, the best of the best in what is entertainment today, where we want it to shape into the future, is really where gaming comes at the forefront, as compared to many other mediums.

Q: How has the gaming landscape changed from one that was perhaps more focused on Triple-A titles to one that now runs the gamut?

A: The models have changed and evolved over time as well. To your point, I think there’s a consumer appetite for long form, short form, and there are now, I think, so many skill sets coming into the sector to be able to do that in a world-class way. I’d also say what’s been really cool is how hybridized a lot of the play styles and play habits have been.

Some of the most followed and renowned creators or streamers are playing multiple games, right? They’re not sort of a one-hit wonder, so to speak, even if they may be more fluent in certain Triple-A or Double-A or, you know, different ways that we would sort of ascribe labels.

I myself play a ton of different games. Depends on my mood. Depends on, again, how many hours do I have to spend in it? And I love the sort of menu of choices that now we as an industry have been able to deliver for consumers, and not thinking about people in one-dimensional ways.

Q: The video game industry globally has generated more revenue than North American sports and movies combined. Where do you see gaming and the gaming experience fitting into broader entertainment?

A: It’s helped that a lot of our household name celebrities are also avid gamers, right? They’ve normalized the conversation around when the Kansas City Chiefs aren’t on the field, they’re playing a ton of games. We’ve got so many different well-known entertainment names across Hollywood, across film, across music, across fashion, who consider themselves fans of games. And that helps us connect dots. It helps us think about collaborations.

Q: How do you balance the use of AI with what the folks who are working on the games want?

A: You hit the nail on the head in terms of the word “balance.� We have wonderful, world-class talent who are always looking at the best in tech, the best in tools, to be able to unlock their creative prowess. What’s really wonderful, I think, is we take a lens of being very principled in that, no matter what the new technology is. We have peers and cross functional groups who are always talking about, what is the role of new tech in our work, but how do we make sure that it’s coming from the ground up? It’s dev-led. It’s dev-inspired. These are really emergent technologies, but we have to be principled and responsible about how we steward it, how we collectively mine for new opportunities.

But what I love is that there’s a real energy around this. That’s always been part and parcel of how, I think, Blizzard has approached new tech in game making. But we have a really good balance of being able to absorb what’s new, but also think about it from a principled people-first, player-first way, to ensure that, you know, our employees feel good about it. Our games thrive. Again, we’re just giving people the tools and the opportunity to do their best work.

Q: DEI has been a very big topic of conversation as over the the last couple of months, as some companies have ditched those initiatives. What role do you see DEI playing at your company?

A: I find it such a blessing that both Blizzard, but also gaming in general, has been inherently a diverse medium since its founding, and so that’s the lens that we were always going to think about it. Not only just at the consumer and the gaming level, in terms of our end results around the communities we forge, but with the people and the talent we want to recruit, retain and advance and empower who make up this organization. That’s always when we’re operating at our best, that’s always been critical to our values and how we see the world.

I also think one of the things that’s come up in conversation that’s really important to me is that kind of value, or values-based approach, is what engenders so much empathy in the stories that we create. Our worlds are nuanced and diverse. Our characters are nuanced and diverse. There is a sensitivity to different abilities, different backgrounds, different lived experiences. Nothing monolithic, nothing too obvious. And so we need people who have diverse, nuanced lived experiences to be able to tell and shape the stories that make us great. And that’s always going to be the truth for how we’re going to operate.

Q: What more can you tell me about what we can expect from BlizzCon?

A: I’m just so thrilled to be bringing it back in the fall of 2026 and I think time is on our side. That was a big part of why we wanted to take this longer lens approach to make sure that everybody comes with the best that we have to offer when we get back to Anaheim. But coming back to Anaheim Convention Center is also a key component to the legacy of BlizzCon, right?

It will be our 15th BlizzCon in Blizzard’s history. So this is a mega moment for us. And you know, I think we’re just really energized by the opportunity to not only bring it back, but elevate it and really over-deliver on people’s expectations — both, again, the players who play our games and have really high expectations for what BlizzCon needs to look and feel like for them, but also for our employees.