Sony has officially announced its decision to withdraw its plans to participate in this year’s annual PAX East conference in Boston, citing a desire to protect the “health and safety” of its global workforce.
Though the coronavirus has spread to the US, the number of total cases in the country is still small in number. Nonetheless, Sony has decided that it’s better to be safe than sorry, and it isn’t hard to understand that perspective. When a virus outbreak occurs, the risk of it spreading faster likely raises when you put hundreds (if not thousands) of travelers from around the world in one location.
The virus, which has killed over 2,000 people and infected over 75,000, originated in Wuhan, China and has since spread to dozens of other countries. At least one case of infection has been reported in Boston, where PAX East is being held from February 27 to March 1.
“Today, Sony Interactive Entertainment made the decision to cancel its participation at PAX East in Boston this year due to increasing concerns related to COVID-19 (also known as ‘novel coronavirus’),” the statement, published in an update on a prior blog post, said. “We felt this was the safest option as the situation is changing daily. We are disappointed to cancel our participation in this event, but the health and safety of our global workforce is our highest concern.”
Among the 25 games PlayStation planned to showcase at PAX East were highly-anticipated PlayStation 4 exclusives like “Final Fantasy VII Remake” and “The Last of Us: Part 2.”
