Open protests at Blizzcon will do an immense amount of financial damage to Blizzard-Activision. At an absolute minimum, they will reduce the return from a mass

Open protests at Blizzcon will do an immense amount of financial damage to Blizzard-Activision. At an absolute minimum, they will reduce the return from a massive publicity exercise. Likely outcomes include damaging future sales of anything that gets revealed/promoted at Blizzcon, increasing awareness of the boycott and the reasons for it, and forcing Blizzard to anger both Blizzard fans (from Blizzard's own probably over-reaction to protesters) and the Chinese government (who are going to be unhappy about any level of protest).