In response to concerns surrounding the Coronavirus, many companies have announced the cancellation or suspension of upcoming events. Recently, Riot Games and EA have announced that all esports activities are suspended until the situation with the Coronavirus improves. Riot Games tweeted out:
EA made an official statement, saying: “This is an unprecedented time. With so many changes happening around the world to limit the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, we are now announcing that we’re suspending all live events for EA’s competitive gaming series, including the Apex Legends Global Series, EA Sports FIFA 20 Global Series, FIFA Online 4 Live Events and Madden NFL 20 Championship Series. This includes all competitive gaming content except for broadcasts that can be individually produced remotely. Online events, where participants and staff are remote and separated will continue. This suspension of events and broadcasts will start today, March 13, and will be in effect until the global coronavirus situation improves.”
Riot Games and EA are just two of the many companies in the video game industry that has been affected by the Coronavirus. In addition to the recent suspension of events for Riot Games and EA, Digital Extremes, the developers behind the popular Warftame announced the cancellation of the attendee event portion of Tennocon 2020, a convention dedicated to the game. The event will still take place online just as many publishers said they would try after the cancellation of E3 2020.
Last week, Activision Blizzard canceled their Overwatch and Call of Duty League events through April. E3 2020 wasn’t one of the only major events that were affected by the Coronavirus. GDC has been postponed to the Summer and before that, companies such as Sony, Microsoft, Unity, and more announced their withdrawal from the event. The organizers have announced that the talks that were supposed to happen during the event will be streamed for free. Earlier in the year, leading up to PAX East, companies like CD Projekt Red and PUBG Corp were among the many who pulled out of the event the week before it was to launch.
Now that the Coronavirus has been declared a global pandemic, many may wonder what is going to happen to the launch of next-gen as analysts say that it will be delayed.