The coronavirus is still becoming a pandemic. With cases popping up all around the world, doctors are still attempting to find a means to combatant the bug before it continues to spread. As a result, there are several big events and even productions that are taking a hit. It wasn’t long ago that we had the likes of the Oculus Rift and Valve Index VR headsets being hit by low to nonexistent shipments due to factories coming to a halt. Now new events are taking a hit with the health scare preventing from larger attendees.
We can take a look at GDC as an example. Recently GDC was hit with several companies pulling out from the event this year purely because of the coronavirus fear. Then the city GDC 2020 is set in, San Francisco, entered a local city emergency in preparation of the coronavirus. At the time, GDC was still going to be held, but now it looks like GDC has officially been postponed until later this summer with more details to come out at a later date.
Now that we are just a few months away before E3 2020 hits, there is some concern that perhaps if this coronavirus continues to spread, perhaps we’ll see E3 shut down for 2020. Recently, Vice Games spoke with an ESA representative who is claiming that there are still plans to hold E3 2020 this June. With that said, there are still plenty of people watching over the coronavirus.
Ultimately, it’s up to the companies that are attending E3 2020 as they can easily pull out just as they did with the likes of PAX East and GDC 2020. If things continue to get worse then several companies may decide not to attend E3 2020 which could potentially cause the event to be postponed or cancelled. Perhaps E3 will be an online event only this time around with the different panels and conferences.