A week after revealing their plans for participating in PAX East 2020, Sony has announced that they will not be participating in the event due to concerns over the coronavirus. There were going to be 25 PlayStation games playable at the event including the first time that the public was going to get hands-on with highly anticipated The Last of Us Part II.
The 25 playable games that were going to be at the event were Below, Cloudpunk, Doom Eternal, Dreams, Final Fantasy VII Remake, Genshin Impact, Gorn, Haven, The Last of Us Part II, Marvel’s Iron Man VR, MLB The Show 20, Mosaic, Moving Out, Nioh 2, One Punch Man: A Hero Nobody Knows, Paper Beast, Persona 5 Royal, Pixel Ripped 1995, Predator: Hunting Grounds, Remnant: From the Ashes, The Room VR: A Dark Matter, Space Channel 5, Spelunky 2, Trials of Mana, and Zombie Army 4.
Sony’s statement on backing out of PAX East reads:
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”). 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.
Attending a show like PAX East is part of Sony’s plan leading into the launch of the next-generation later this year. While announcing that they wouldn’t be attending E3, Sony said that they would be “participating in hundreds of consumer events across the globe.”
This is not the first time that something has been changed due to the coronavirus. Week 2 of he League of Legends Pro League was postponed due to the cornavirus outbreak in China and The Nintendo Switch version of The Outer Worlds was delayed from its release date due to the virus as well.