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Organizers for the annual Paris Games Week gaming convention have canceled this year’s event, citing the “current context and the necessary anticipation of both the technical and logistical complexities” of holding such an event.
Paris Games Week typically hosts more than 300,000 at Paris Expo Porte de Versailles. This year’s show would have marked the tenth anniversary of Paris Games Week.
A number of major gaming events have been canceled or reduced to digital events that will take place exclusively online, including the annual Game Developers Conference, E3, San Diego Comic-Con, QuakeCon, and Gamescom, so Paris Games Week’s cancellation is not a surprise. But the far off date for the event, which was scheduled to run Oct. 23-27, is an indicator that large fan gatherings won’t return any time soon.
Two major gaming events that precede Paris Games Week’s planned dates are PAX West and Tokyo Game Show. PAX organizers said in April that they’re “still planning on putting together a great PAX West,” which will take place in Seattle on Sept. 4-7. Organizers for TGS have not yet canceled their show, which is scheduled to take place Sept. 24-27.
Blizzard Entertainment said in early April that “it’s too early to know whether BlizzCon 2020 will be feasible.” That annual fan gathering is scheduled for early November.
Here is the full statement from Paris Games Week officials:
It is with great emotion that we have made the difficult decision to cancel Paris Games Week, initially scheduled from 23rd to 27th October and which would have marked our 10th anniversary.
The current context and the necessary anticipation of both the technical and logistical complexities of an event such as Paris Games Week have led us to cancel this edition.
This year should have been special, with a line-up full of new releases, and an anniversary edition which we were thrilled to celebrate with you.
We are going to work with all the industry players to enable us all to live our passion. We are already preparing next year’s edition and are looking forward to seeing you again.
