PlayStation cancel PAX East appearance due to coronavirus

There has, as you might have noticed, not been any major news on the PlayStation 5 (or Xbox Series X) this year, despite many expecting Sony to formally reveal the console this month or next.

At the moment there’s still no sign of that happening and if you were hoping for some kind of news at PAX East next weekend that’s already been ruled out.

PAX East starts on Thursday, 27 February in Boston, Massachusetts and Sony has claimed that concern over the coronavirus outbreak has convinced them to cancel their appearance.

Of the 15 cases of the coronavirus in the US one of them was a Boston man who contracted the virus after visiting the Chinese city of Wuhan, but that’s the only connection the city has with the outbreak.

It was very unlikely Sony would have said anything about the PlayStation 5 at the event, as they were instead planning to show off exclusives such as The Last Of Us Part 2 and Final Fantasy 7 Remake.

But no other company has pulled out of PAX East, which is otherwise carrying on as usual, and Sony’s announcement on the US PlayStation Blog says only that they have ‘increasing concerns’ about the coronavirus and ‘the health and safety of our global workforce’.

Not, of course, that video games are important in the grand scheme of things but previous to this the only way the outbreak has affected gaming is the cancellation of various tournaments in Asia and Nintendo’s warning about stock issues in Asia (but not the rest of the world).

There had been concern that the launch of the next generation PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X consoles might be delayed, since they’re both manufactured in China, but Sony’s most recent financial report suggests that’s not the case.

Coronavirus aside, Sony has been avoiding most trade and public events for years now, having seemingly given up on E3, Gamescom, Paris Games Week, and its own PSX events.

Instead, Sony intends to organise ‘hundreds’ of consumer events for the PlayStation 5, although it still hasn’t explained exactly what it means by that or when they will happen.