Sony pulls out of Pax East over coronavirus

You may get a slight sense of deja vu when reading the next sentence: Sony has pulled out of the Pax East convention next week, over concerns about the spread of the coronavirus.

Regular readers of the site may recall that LG performing a similar withdrawal from MWC at the start of the month. This triggered a domino effect where more and more smartphone manufacturers pulled out until the whole event was cancelled.

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That’s unlikely to be repeated here, given Pax East starts next week, running from February 27 to March 1. There just isn’t that much time for similar momentum to grow and at this point the event is due to go ahead as scheduled – though you would imagine the sharing of controllers and VR headsets will have extra protocols as a precaution.  

“Today, Sony Interactive Entertainment made the decision to cancel its participation at PAX East in Boston this year due to increasing concerns related to COVID-19 (also known as “novel coronavirus”),” the company wrote in an update to its original Pax announcement. Indeed, the post is still entitled “come play games with us”, which feels like adding insult to injury given you, uh, can’t,

“We felt this was the safest option as the situation is changing daily. We are disappointed to cancel our participation in this event, but the health and safety of our global workforce is our highest concern.”

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That’s a pity, because it was going to be a chance for players to try The Last of Us Part II, Dreams, Marvel’s Iron Man VR, Nioh 2, Doom Eternal and – the sequel to the best game ever made – Spelunky 2. 

We’re so sad to have to miss PAX East! We were really looking forward to meeting you and seeing your reactions to the demo. Although we know this makes the wait until May 29 a bit harder, we appreciate your understanding. Don’t worry, we’ll have more to share closer to launch. https://t.co/tIJ0Z7Ztcs

— Naughty Dog (@Naughty_Dog) February 19, 2020

 

With Sony not attending E3 this year, and with the company announcing no replacement opportunities for hands-on time at the time of writing, you’ll just have to imagine what you’re missing.

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