The organization behind PAX East has spoken up about Sony's decision to pull out from attending the convention this year.

Recently, PlayStation announced that it would surprisingly opt to skip out on attending PAX East 2020, a little over a week before the event is set to take place. PlayStation cited concerns surrounding COVID- 19, otherwise known as the coronavirus, as the reason why it would be pulling out from the convention so late. Now, Penny Arcade, the organization behind PAX East and all other PAX conventions, has responded to this decision.

All in all, Penny Arcade didn’t blame Sony for opting to pull the plug on its plans this year whatsoever. “While we are saddened that Sony will no longer have a presence at PAX East 2020, we look forward to welcoming our friends at Sony to future PAX events and are focused on making PAX East 2020 a successful and enjoyable event for all attendees and exhibitors,” the organization said in a statement. It also went on to say that it is working diligently to ensure that the convention space will following public health guildines outlined by the CDC to make PAX East a safe experience for everyone.

Here’s the full statement from Penny Arcade found on the PAX East website:

The entire PAX community wants to express our concern for everyone impacted by the COVID- 19 virus. The gaming community is a global one and our hearts go out to every person and family affected.

PAX East 2020 will take place as scheduled with enhanced cleaning and sanitization across the show, including adhering to the recommendations set forth in the U.S. EPA’s Emerging Pathogen Policy regarding cleaning disinfectants effective against the COVID-19 virus. We are working closely with the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center and following local, state and federal public health guidelines, including those issued by the CDC. For more information on those measures and the virus, please visit the PAX East travel page and the MCCA website.

While we are saddened that Sony will no longer have a presence at PAX East 2020, we look forward to welcoming our friends at Sony to future PAX events and are focused on making PAX East 2020 a successful and enjoyable event for all attendees and exhibitors.

The well-being of everyone at PAX – from our attendees and exhibitors to our staff on-site at every show – is of the utmost importance to ReedPOP and Penny Arcade. Across the more than 50 total PAX events around the world, we have provided a positive environment for over one million attendees to celebrate gaming. We will continue to work diligently to ensure PAX East 2020 and our other events live up to our high standards and we will proactively keep you up to date with any further developments as we get closer to PAX East 2020.

As I wrote in our previous story about this situation, you can’t really fault Sony for opting to pull out. They’re keeping the safety of their employees at the forefront of their mind, which isn’t a bad decision whatsoever. It’s likely the fans who will be attending PAX East 2020 who will be most disappointed by this matter. Especially, those who were looking forward to playing The Last of Us Part II.

The more interesting thread to follow in the coming days will be to see if other publishers end up following Sony’s lead. With the show taking place exactly one week from today, that prospect seems unlikely, but we’ll let you know if something were to change.

PAX East 2020 will occur in Boston, MA, beginning on Thursday, February 27, and ending on Sunday, March 1. We at DualShockers will still be attending the show, so stay tuned to check out our coverage.



Posted: Feb 23, 2020 6:59 pm
Related Forum: PlayStation Forum

Source: https://www.dualshockers.com/playstation-paxt-east-2020-penny-arcade-response/