The organizers of the PAX East convention have announced it’s not happening this year. While they’re hoping the other PAX festivals will go on as planned, they say they can’t risk the health of the attendees by holding an in-person event while the pandemic rages on.
The PAX East conference is usually held in Boston early in the year, but not this year. In the meantime, the PAX organizers are following the example of Steam Next Fest and holding their PAX Online show in the summer, the traditional time to announce new games. It’ll be held from July 15-18. While we’re not certain whether or not we’re going to get an E3, online or otherwise, at least we’ll have some summer shows to which we can look forward.
In case you’re wondering, yep, it’s the same reason it has been for the last year: The global health crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the statement given by parent company Reedpop: “While we hoped PAX East could safely take place, we remained realistic and did not sell any tickets or space to exhibitors to avoid significantly inconveniencing our friends and partners. As we have shown via our actions throughout the pandemic, our utmost concern is the safety of the PAX family — from attendees, exhibitors, and show staff to media and content creators — as well as the local communities that host our celebrations of all things gaming. We will only move forward with a live PAX once we are confident the show will be safe for everyone.”
All is not lost, though. Reedpop says it’s hopeful that progress on treating the disease will mean conventions set to run later this year will still be able to go on: “Given the US’ progress towards addressing COVID-19 in recent months, we’re cautiously optimistic West & Unplugged will proceed in-person festivities Sept 3-6 and Dec 10-12.”
Source: PAX
