For the first time in 50 years, San Diego Comic-Con will not be held this summer due to lingering concerns stemming from the coronavirus.

It seemed like only a matter of time at this point until San Diego Comic-Con 2020 was going to be canceled or postponed from its slated July show dates, and today, the news was finally made official.

Announced via the Comic-Con website, the organization behind SDCC stated that the convention has indeed been outright canceled for 2020 with plans to once again hold the event next year in July 2021. This is the first time in 50 years that San Diego Comic-Con that the event has been canned. As expected, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic was the culprit behind the show’s cancellation.

The blog post on Comic-Con’s website said that the organization had hoped to still hold the convention this summer if the situation surrounding the coronavirus had improved by that time. San Diego Comic-Con has long been a major event for many in the entertainment industry and is a vital place to market and discuss upcoming movies, games, and other various products. However, the Governor of California recently indicated that no such mass gathering should be occurring this summer, which then led to the final decision to outright cancel the event.

“Extraordinary times require extraordinary measures and while we are saddened to take this action, we know it is the right decision,” said David Glanzer, a representative for Comic-Con. “We eagerly look forward to the time when we can all meet again and share in the community we all love and enjoy.”

The plug has finally been pulled on San Diego Comic-Con 2020 😔

For the first time in its 50-year history, there will be no SDCC this year, and the convention will instead return July 22-25, 2021

(via @Comic_Con) pic.twitter.com/IxYDPKVXaE

— Fandom (@getFANDOM) April 17, 2020

While not a hotbed for gaming news like other conventions in E3 and Gamescom tend to be, San Diego Comic-Con still annually brought with it a fair amount of information on upcoming video game titles. Most notably, Marvel Games has utilized the show the most over the past few years as a place to reveal new footage for projects like Marvel’s Spider-Man and this year’s upcoming release of Marvel’s Avengers. While specific plans for SDCC hadn’t been disclosed by various publishers that were planning to attend just yet, it’s safe to assume that some potential announcements have been nixed as a result.

As of this writing, nearly all major gaming conventions for the remainder of 2020 have essentially been canceled. Gamescom recently announced that its show this year would instead be fully digital with more plans on the event to be revealed in the future. The status of August’s PAX West and September’s Tokyo Game Show have not been revealed just yet, but we should hear more in the coming weeks and months about each.

Posted: Apr 19, 2020 5:16 pm
Related Forum: Gaming Discussion

Source: https://www.dualshockers.com/san-diego-comic-con-2020-canceled/