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COVID-19: Cancelled Culture
Sterica
YesRegistered User, Moderator mod
YesRegistered User, Moderator mod
The Coronavirus is running amok all over, and it’s shutting down a lot of events. The purpose of this thread is to be a community resource for when gaming-related events are shut down because of the virus. This is NOT a thread to discuss the virus or anything else pertaining to it: that’s what D&D is for.
Confirmed Cancelled
Cancelled basically means the event isn’t happening until 2021 or later.
Currently Postponed or Altered
Postponed means anything still happening this year, but just later.
Still Occurring As Planned
If you have updates or additions, INCLUDE AN OFFICIAL SOURCE. I would also only include noteworthy events, and not your local comic shop’s Magic tournament shutting down. International events are good to have.
Stay safe out there!
Confirmed Cancelled
- GDC
- SXSW
- E3
- Toronto Comic Con
- Midwest Gaming Classic
- All Official Pokémon Tournaments
- QuakeCon
- San Diego Comic-Con
- Gamescom (Digital events still happening)
- EVO (Online tournament planned Event Cancelled entirely for 2020)
- The International (DOTA Tournament)
- GenCon
- Essen SPIEL
- BlizzCon (digital event in early 2021)
- SGDQ (will have online marathon in August)
- PAX AUS
- PAX West (PAX Online, a free event, occurring Sept 12-20)
- Emerald City Comic-Con
- RTX (will have virtual event)
- Dragon Con (virtual event during Labor Day weekend)
- New York Comic Con
- PAX Unplugged
Cancelled basically means the event isn’t happening until 2021 or later.
Currently Postponed or Altered
- Apple WWDC (Will be streamed)
- Origins (Moved to Oct 7- 11; online stream June 19 - 21)
Postponed means anything still happening this year, but just later.
Still Occurring As Planned
- Not a thing
If you have updates or additions, INCLUDE AN OFFICIAL SOURCE. I would also only include noteworthy events, and not your local comic shop’s Magic tournament shutting down. International events are good to have.
Stay safe out there!
Sterica on
+4
This discussion has been closed.
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https://www.cnet.com/news/apples-wwdc-to-be-online-only-this-year-due-to-coronavirus/
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
A buddy of mine learned B the hard way and is now out ~$2100.
They've announced the new date for the con: August 21st through 23rd.
Yes, this means that ECCC is the week before a potential PAX West (assuming PAX West is still the last weekend of August).
EDIT - source: the ECCC email I got earlier this evening informing me that I can transfer my badge to the new date if I wanted to.
Also, if your event gets cancelled and you pre-paid for your hotel, call your hotel and try to get a refund anyway. When Pokemon Go Fest St. Louis got cancelled, the Courtyard by Marriott gave me a full refund when I asked. Be kind when you call -- the hospitality industry is going through a lot.
You can select your local metro area and refine by event type.
The wording about 'seeing you at FAN EXPO' indicates to me that they aren't planning to reschedule, this one is just done. However, Toronto Comic Con is a much smaller event than Fan Expo (the former is 3 days and takes up a chunk of one part of the Metro Toronto Convention Center, whereas the latter takes up like the whole damned thing, both North and South buildings, and is 4 days long).
Gencon is currently still on
But of course, an event over 4 months away is massively subject to change.
PSN:Furlion
Yeah... I'm surprised they haven't called something yet since it's a lot of people flying in, etc. Registration isn't open for a few weeks still, but...
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PSN: AbEntropy
Stuff in late July/August (such as my beloved Gencon) seem to be doing the same; haven't cancelled yet, are watching state/medical professional suggestions, will update from there.
I'm not super optimistic, but given the time, effort, and work put into these things, I can understand wanting to wait to make the call if there is time to do so.
Or, more specifically, the state shuts it down and the contract clauses let them off the hook.
3DS: 0473-8507-2652
Switch: SW-5185-4991-5118
PSN: AbEntropy
Source: https://www.pokemon.com/us/pokemon-news/2020-pokemon-championship-series-canceled/
I can has cheezburger, yes?
They kinda got pre-empted by the hotels sending out cancellation notices before they did, but here's the official twitter announcement.
Wud yoo laek to lern aboot meatz? Look here!
Wud yoo laek to lern aboot meatz? Look here!
https://www.gencon.com/press/updates-gen-con-covid19
I have been attending under the auspices of a board game company for the last few years, and while it would be awesome to work that booth again this year, at this point I'm expecting it to be cancelled, or at the very least see drastic limitations put upon it. It's an event that attracts tens of thousands of people from around the world. Some kind of limits on who can attend, stipulations on testing (I'm aware of the shenanigans with availability of tests, I'm projecting out to mid summer here and sure hope the US gets its shit together faster than that).
Not to editorialize too heavily, but I thought I'd share that I'd noticed there was an update.
Glancing at other big nerdy conventions in that part of the year, San Diego Comic Con is still hoping to meet a week or two earlier in the year than Gencon does. With over 15,000 cases identified in California (recognizing it is a massive state with a massive population), it will be interesting to see if they actually go ahead with that.
Can't have much of a convention of the retailers and big organized play people aren't there.
I can has cheezburger, yes?
Err, not to mention how things are actually going. Projecting this stuff out a month or a quarter isn't easy, but I think it's unlikely a lot of these things are happening, and they're just shuffling back to later dates or leaving 'we'll see' there in an abundance of hope.
But realistically, even if somehow the US is past the peak in June or July, I can't see how cramming tens of thousands of people into a convention center will be a good idea, no matter how many masks and gloves you distribute, how many times you wipe down the door handles, game pieces, etc.
Speaking of which, Origins just got pushed back to October 7-11.
On a side note, Wizards generally hasn't shown up to GenCon for years in favor of their own MagicFests, and their events are usually contracted out to a separate company.
(I mean, why risk having your player base exposed to new games or ideas when you can keep them in their own closed garden 24/7?)
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To clarify:
The physical con has been moved to Oct. 7 - 11. However, there will be an online con June 19-21.
I can has cheezburger, yes?
Gamescom's canceled but will attempt to run a digital event instead
The Indie Megabooth is done until the pandemic is over
Gamescom looks to be cancelled, with details on digital events announcing in May
EVO is going to be making announcements regarding 2020 soon
Gen Con and the remaining PAXes (PAXen?) are still happening as scheduled
GDC's emergency backup summer event to replace the canceled conference will now be digital-only
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I can has cheezburger, yes?
My theory is that most of them are waiting to see the state of the world a month or so out, and also what their city/state/province/etc is allowing. For example, Toronto Fan Expo hasn't officially been cancelled (as far as I've seen), but events that attract 25,000+ individuals are cancelled until at least September, and FE happens in August.
I think a lot of stuff that far out will remain on schedule until abruptly they aren't.
Now, obviously there's going to be a difference in how things are handled for events that attract tens of thousands of people versus 'this small thing that literally whole dozens of people show up to', it's certainly not a perfect 1:1, but I suspect we'll see trends across the convention industry all the same.
As profitable as some of these things are, nobody is going to want to be known as 'that thing that was open during a pandemic and then proved to be ground zero for the worst con crud body count in the history of nerd cons'.
Some are presumed to basically have to be making a good faith effort to go forward due to contractual obligations, essentially waiting for force majeure/'act of god' clauses to kick in and either help out with insurance, or allow them to bail on contracts/obligations that would be otherwise prohibitively costly to incur.
According to some articles I've read, Gencon (as an example) brings in something like $60 million USD to Indianapolis, between hotels being booked for miles, restaurants being filled to an hour+ waiting time, and countless other benefits. Obviously there's a financial incentive in play, but I do have faith that the convention team will make the right call for the safety of the community (gamers and the city alike).
I think we'll start seeing more events (large and small) start admitting defeat in the next few weeks. The real question will be how far out that wave will carry before we're left waiting patiently for the next round of them to pack up for the year (or push back to the fall/winter, where possible, but even that might just be kicking the can down the road).
Take Origins, for example. With the physical game fair now in October (if it happens at all) you're going to see it split between three days of kind of light play (Wed/Thurs for sure, maybe Fri) and then just getting hammered Sat/Sun once the local kids are off from school. Not to mention, if college football goes on as scheduled, rooms are going to be at a freaking premium, especially Friday night, because Origins is in Columbus, OH, and so is Ohio State, and the weekend they've selected to make up Origins... is an OSU home game. So that's going to be a mess.
Honestly, I just don't see it happening this year. It's not safe enough to go to a big convention, and it's just going to take one contagious jackass and everyone's going to have a bad time.
I can has cheezburger, yes?
The other side of it is the question of how low a turnout can such events have and remain profitable enough to justify both running the normal expenses (even if the venues cut them a deal due to nothing else happening in that time frame) and the extra costs involved in heightened cleaning efforts, reduced revenue from turnout/merch potentially, event tickets, etc.
Like, if the event expects 50,000 people to show up across a few days, but 10,000 do, sure, physical distancing is less of an issue, but if they needed 20,000 minimum daily tickets sold to make up even normal expenses, that's going to be a problem. I admit, I have no idea what margins these cons run on, but I doubt it's 'hand over fist' kind of cash, so a 1/2 turnout due to reduced interest and perhaps negligible international attendance could make even proceeding for contractual/financial reasons something of a Pyrrhic victory (and that's before the risk of it becoming known as ground zero, likely suppressing interest/attendance/finances for years to come).
Honestly, it would be nice if some more cities/states just said 'wtf? No, no you cannot have your gathering, try again in 2021'. If some contracts require it to be out of their hands, then make it so and take the matter off everyone's plate.
Essen SPIEL (aka “the largest table top convention in the world”) got pushed back to 2021.
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That puts it better than I could have. I'm a volunteer for RTX in Texas this year and I'm really concerned about them sticking with their scheduled date over the labor day weekend. I have to make a decision soon to book tickets/hotels and whatnot, but I just can't seem to see this going away any time soon.
Wud yoo laek to lern aboot meatz? Look here!
Blizzcon 2020 is cancelled.