PAX East 2021 has been canceled and replaced with the returning PAX Online, which will take place from Thursday, July 15 to Sunday, July 18. PAX East is slated to return to Boston in 2022, and show organizers are "cautiously optimistic PAX West and PAX Unplugged 2021 will proceed as planned from Sept. 3-6 and Dec. 10-12, respectively."
Here is the released statement below:
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.
There will be online gatherings leading up to PAX Online, so be sure to stay tuned. For more information on all things PAX throughout 2021, stay tuned to TechRaptor for more details.
Quick Take
This makes sense. As more of the population becomes vaccinated and comes to terms with going out into the world again, it's better to be safe than sorry and cancel PAX East while still planning on PAX West and Pax Unplugged 2021 to continue as planned. It's a fairly reasonable assumption to assume that by September we'll be mostly back to normal, so this decision to cancel PAX East is definitely a good one from both a PR and rational standpoint.
What do you think of this news? Do you think PAX East should go ahead and that we'd be fine come July? Or do you agree with Reedpop and Penny Arcade and think it's a little too early? Let us know in the comments!
