The Tokyo Game Show, one of the biggest video game events on the planet—last year’s drew over 260,000 people—has been cancelled for 2020 amidst the covid-19 pandemic, and will now be replaced with an online showcase.
A statement released by the show’s organisers sent to Kotaku reads:
Due to the outbreak of novel coronavirus (COVID-19) on a global scale and the situation remains unpredictable in Japan as well, the organiser and the co-organisers have reached this decision after a long consideration to place the utmost priority on the health and safety of visitors, exhibitors and stakeholders. We ask for your kind understanding and cooperation.
Getting to TGS involves being pressed shoulder-to-shoulder on trains. Being at TGS involves being pressed shoulder-to-shoulder in a packed exhibition centre. The show was never going to be happening in the near future, let alone in just a few months’ time, and so this is hardly surprising news.
Details of just what exactly the online component of the showcase will look like will be announced in the coming weeks.
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