HomeFeatures
Every gaming coronavirus cancellationAll the big cancellations in one big list
All the big cancellations in one big list
Since its discovery in December 2019, the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (which causes the disease Covid-19) has spread to 123 countries and territories.On Wednesday, the World Health Organization declared it a pandemic and urged governments to take serious action. While official responses from North America and the UK are still pretty lax, many companies are formulating their own responses, including working from home and–especially relevant in games–cancelling large events.
This is just about the logistical impacts. I can dispense no medical advice or insight. For that, I refer you tothe WHO,NHS England, andNHS Scotland. I hope you and yours are well. But a big list of video game goings-on? That is within my purview.
So much has gone down that I’m sure I’ve missed a few things. Loads of events were postponed today alone! This list can only be noncomprehensive, but it is quite long.
Industry events
E3 2020 is cancelledThe year’s biggest marketing bonanza will return in 2021. The organiser say they’re looking into some sort of “online experience”, though all the big E3 announcements come from events the publishers host themselves anyway. It really shouldn’t be that different for folks at home?
GDC 2020 postponedThe 2020 Game Developers Conference was due to take place March 15-20 in San Francisco. Instead, the organisers plan to share some presentations online, then hold some sort of event this summer. Microsoftwill stream all their GDC talkstoo. A fundraisingorganising a relief fundto help indie developers who blew money on attending.
Bafta Games Awards going onlineNo red carpet ceremony for the UK games industry this year. That’s fine; the fashion is usually not great.
HTC holding a VR conference in VRThis year’s Vive Ecosystem Conference will be held in cyberspace. Before then, it’s been in China.
Digital Dragons is postponedThe Polish games industry conference is pushed back to September.
Games First London 2020 is cancelledI honestly had not heard of this development conference.
Nvidia GTC 2020 will now be onlineThis year’s GPU Technology Conference had been due to happen in San Jose, now it’ll all be done digitally March 22-26.
Public events
EGX Rezzed is postponedThe London games show is pushed back from this month to some time this summer.
Now Play This is postponedDue to run April 3-5, the playful and experimental London festival is now planned for autumn. Everyone’s getting a refund.
Minecraft Festival is postponedThe fan event wasn’t happening until September but Mojang say they were “not making any predictions about how long it will take to put the outbreak behind us.”
Eve Fanfest cancelledThe annual fan gathering was due in April. Refunds for all!
A Maze postponedBerlin’s weird indie gamesblast is pushed back from April to July.
Nordic Game Jam is postponedIt was due to run April 16-19. The Danish government issued a national lockdown and advised against large gatherings so, well. Refunds are open to all.
SXSW cancelledSXSW isn’t super-strong on games but March’s event would have a spread including a Sonic panel and an arcade.
BitSummit is offThe Japanese indie games event was going down in May.
Taipei Games Show postponedIt was expected to bring a new look at FromSoftware’sElden Ring, among other things. Now it’s delayed to summer.
TennoCon is cancelledWarfame’s fan convention is technically “going fully digital”, planning online stuff to replace the con.
Business-y stuff
Valve Index production held upValve say they’ll have fewer VR kits available than planned over the coming months.
Bungie letting employees work from homeThis in a week they launched a new content season. Ooft! They say they’ve got it covered.
Microsoft encourage many employees to work from homeThey have offices around the world so policies vary, but broadly they want lots of folks to work from home when possible.
Nintendo Switch manufacturing was disrupted tooOkay, this really isn’t about PC, but while I’m at it…
Development continues even under quarantineAlexis Ong had a cracking look at effects of Chinese quarantines on indie developers there.
Discord increased its screensharing limitTo help people working or studying from home, Discord have upped the screensharing limit from 10 people to 50. That’s helpful for holding classes online, working online, or just plain having human contact online.
AT&T suspended broadband caps and usage chargesNow that more Americans are expecting to be working from home, the ISP actually did something good for once. The caps are well rubbo, so good riddance.
Esports
Rocket League World Championship cancelledThen after a little thought, Psyonixdecidedto make the Regional Championships “the pinnacle of Season 9” and pump extra money from Worlds into their prize pools.
Overwatch League taking March and April offBlizzard have cancelled a few matches since the outbreak started, firstin Chinaandthen South Korea, and now have called off everything for March and April.
Dota 2 Major postponedMarch’s event in Los Angeles is off.
Loads of LoL is offLeague was one of the first digital sports to have events binned, starting in January. Lots more have been scrapped since then. Most recently, the European Championshipsuspended its spring seasonand the Championship Seriesscrapped live events.
Intel Extreme Masters Katowice 2020 had no audiencePolish authorities revoked IEM Katowice’s mass event license 15 hours before it started, meaning the ESL Pro Tour matches went ahead without the 11,000-strong crowd.
EA cancelled a load of Apex Legends and FifaSome events are postponed and some are actually still going ahead, but a few are just gone.
Hearthstone’s Masters Tour Los Angeles has gone online-onlyBlizzard had initiallymoved it from Indonesia to the USA, thinking that would be less of a health risk, but since admitted yeah no. They’re going to reimburse competitors up to $1500 for travel booked.
Tekken Masters Tournament is postponedAnd the World Tour’s qualifier roundsare postponed.
Capcom Pro Tour cancelled some events and postponed othersNo streetfighting in Belgium, the USA, or Taiwan.
Call Of Duty League takes matches onlineLive events will return “as soon as it is safe and logistically possible.”
Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds postponed PGS: BerlinThey said they do still plan to fit four global digisports events into 2020.
NBA 2K League’s 2020 season postponedInstead, they’ll run preseason games in preparation for the real deal.
