PAX East is Still Set to Get Started Tomorrow
PAX East is taking another loss just before the event kicks off tomorrow. CD Projekt Red and PUBG Corp have both announced that they will no longer be in attendance at the gaming convention this year.
Stephanie Bayer, North American head of communications for CD Projekt Red, announced the company’s decision via tweet.
“I just found out my team is cancelling our PAX East trip so I will NOT be at PAX East as previously planned. I should still be at GDC though!”
Bayer clarified that CD Projekt Red had no plans to showcase Cyberpunk 2077, but several staff members were meant to attend the event.
Word of PUBG Corp’s cancellation comes through Gamespot. The company cited the continued spread of novel coronavirus as the reason for its decision to pull out of the event.
PUBG Corp was meant to host a happy hour event at a local Boston pub for fans of PUBG. They have not fully cancelled the event though, they’ve merely postponed it.
“We will be rescheduling this plan for an upcoming event, once the coronavirus is under control and travel returns to normal,” said PUBG Corp.
Several major players have reduced their presence or fully dropped out of PAX East. Square Enix and Capcom have both cancelled appearances from their dev teams. Sony has dropped out of both PAX and GDC 2020. EA will no longer be at GDC. The cancellations are all in response to the spread of novel coronavirus.
These cancellations don’t just affect the game industry. Boston pulls in a large amount of revenue from hosting the event. Boston’s mayor has publicly urged Sony to reverse their decision to drop out of PAX East. Sony has not made an official acknowledgement of the mayor’s request as of yet.
Source: PC Gamer