PAX East 2021 onsite event has been canceled but will still take place online.
A few weeks back, Reed Pop had announced that PAX East 2021 was still going to happen and that it would be an onsite event. When we’re still not out of this COVID-19 situation, a physical gaming event didn’t seem like a smart idea, not at all. Thankfully, wiser heads prevailed, and today, Reedpop notified us that PAX East 2021 has been canceled. Replacing the event will be a new event called PAX Online 2021, which will occur from July 15th – July 18th, 2021.
Here’s the full announcement of changes from Kyle Marsden-Kish, Reedpop’s PAX Event Director;
In light of ongoing public health concerns, ReedPop and Penny Arcade will not hold PAX East this year. Given the United States’ progress towards addressing COVID-19 in recent months, we are cautiously optimistic PAX West and PAX Unplugged will proceed as planned with in-person festivities Sept. 3-6 and Dec. 10-12, respectively.
Since we can’t wait until September to reconnect with the wonderful PAX community, PAX Online will return July 15-18. We hope to build on the success of last year’s record-breaking event and also engage with our community in new ways, such as the Indie Showcase that will take place between now and PAX Online. Expect to hear more about these exciting plans soon.
While we hoped PAX East could safely take place, we remained realistic and did not sell any tickets or space to exhibitors to avoid significantly inconveniencing our friends and partners. As we have shown via our actions throughout the pandemic, our utmost concern is the safety of the PAX family — from attendees, exhibitors, and show staff to media and content creators — as well as the local communities that host our celebrations of all things gaming. We will only move forward with a live PAX once we are confident the show will be safe for everyone.
ReedPop and Penny Arcade will continue to monitor the situation surrounding COVID-19, observe government guidelines and local laws, and defer to health officials and experts on what is deemed safe.
We are grateful for the efforts everyone made to make PAX East happen in 2021, and we look forward to returning to Boston in 2022.
While PAX East 2021 has been canceled, there are still plans for PAX East 2022 to occur if the world is ready for that. As for PAX Online 2021, happening online does mean several things will change. It also means that this will be yet one more online event that will be fighting for our attention when Summer 2021 rolls around. We already know of several online events, such as IGN’s Summer Game Fest 2021, with several others already in the planning stages as well. It’s going to be a busy Summer 2021 for us gamers, that’s for sure.
I do miss heading out to PAX and countless other gaming events. But it simply isn’t safe, and I doubt we’ll be able to attend our favorite events for at least another year. And that’s being optimistic.
What do you think about the cancellation of PAX East 2021 and the digital event taking its place? Let us know in the comments.
