Whether or not you think the Coronavirus scare is overblown, it’s been impacting launches, ports, and conventions for the last month. The latest such impact hits MMORPG players specifically, as Square Enix has now announced it is canceling a big chunk of its attendance at the event, meaning significantly reduced Final Fantasy XIV at the show.
“As the community may be aware, COVID-19 (also known as novel coronavirus) is spreading within the East Asia region,” the company writes. “Taking into consideration the current situation within the region, sadly SQUARE ENIX has decided to cancel the PAX East attendance of staff who would be travelling from the Japan offices. This difficult decision was based on our desire to prevent any potential spread of the virus and to prioritize the health and safety of our team and our fans.”
That means no panel, no press interviews (we assume the one we’d arranged is toast too), no dev signing session, no photo ops with the team, and no fan gathering. The booth will still be up, however, with the “the Ruby Weapon battle challenge, the New Player Experience, and photo opportunities,” and the studio will run a bilingual livestream on Saturday from Japan instead.
Source: Official site
Update
Unfortunately, the FFXI fan event has also been canceled. “We had originally planned to have Producer Akihiko Matsui and Director Yoji Fujito host a presentation at the event,” the studio wrote on the FFXI website. “However, we will be adjusting our plan to deliver this information in a different form. We will follow up with more details in the future.”
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