ReedPop and Penny Arcade announced this week that PAX East is on for 2022 in Boston, Massachusetts, returning to an in-person event from April 21st to April 24th next year. Badges for the event are already available for purchase; organizers promise a “massive show floor featuring hundreds of publishers, developers, and vendors, to be announced in the coming months leading up to the show.”
You might think it’s a bit of an odd announcement, coming just as another COVID-19 variant is gripping the region in another wave of the now two-year-old pandemic. Massachusetts itself has seen cases, hospitalizations, and deaths spike dramatically over the last couple of weeks. But PAX’s Jerry Holkins claims successful safety measures at PAX West (last September in Seattle) and PAX Unplugged (last weekend in Philadelphia, currently experiencing a massive spike in cases and rushing to institute new safety measures like vaccine mandates) justify continued in-person events for video games.
“After canceling 2021’s show for the health and safety of the community, and successfully hosting safe events with Seattle’s PAX West and Philadelphia’s PAX Unplugged, PAX East will require mandatory proof of vaccination and face coverings for all attendees, exhibitors, and guests in the BCEC. Additional health and safety information will be shared on the PAX East website in the leadup to the event.”
Hopefully, this wave will be over by then; in the meantime, you’ll have to look out for yourselves since other people clearly won’t be.
