The outbreak of coronavirus has become a global concern now. The first case of coronavirus infection was recorded at a live meat market in Wuhan, China, in December. It has since spread to more than 101 countries according to WHO, including the European regions, regions of Americas, Western Pacific region and parts of Asia. Now it has become a global challenge.
The Indian government has started cancelling visas of the people coming from China, Italy and Iran. As the number of the coronavirus cases increased to 43 the government has ordered all telecom firms to make a 30-second audio clip on coronavirus as a caller tune of mobile phone users to create awareness among masses about the epidemic — an order that state-owned BSNL and Reliance Jio have fully complied with while other telcos are to follow.
The virus can infect anybody coming in the radius of less than one meter ( three feet) of the affected. The fear of infection has created a panic scene around as people are cancelling travelling plans, social meetings, gatherings, airport visit and many more where the virus could spread from one to many. In addition to that many companies have called off their names form the participation list of big events as there are high chances of spreading infection.
International
The coronavirus outbreak has become a worldwide phenomenon and because of which events are being cancelled and postponed around the globe to prevent further spread of the coronavirus. The first major cancellation was Mobile World Congress, which had expected to draw 100,000 people to Barcelona. The cancellation of events continued with Intel’s Intel Labs Day then Facebook’s annual Global Marketing Summit in San Francisco and more. The remarkable one which has tremor the gaming Industry was the postponement of The Game Developers Conference (GDC), San Francisco.
The event, which has run since 1988, was expected to take place from 16 March to 20 March but the outbreak has made it organisers to postpone the event. Due to the coronavirus outbreak, companies like Sony, Microsoft, Epic Games, Unity, Activision Blizzard, Amazon, and Facebook, including Oculus, all cancelled their plans to attend the show, citing health concerns related to the spread of the novel coronavirus.
This was followed by MipTV, the international television conferences and markets have been cancelled due to concerns related to the coronavirus. The event was scheduled to take place from 30 March to 2 April in Cannes. Organisers Reed Midem said Wednesday that all of the events surrounding MipTV, including Mip Formats, Mip Doc and Canneseries, have also been cancelled.
Multiple esports events of several different games are currently being affected by coronavirus, they are either been postponed or have been cancelled. The Overwatch League has officially cancelled all matches in February and March scheduled to take place in China, due to the coronavirus outbreak. In a statement on Twitter, the Overwatch League said the decision was made “to protect the health and safety of our players, fans, and staff.”
Some organisations have begun to cancel events, these include the League of Legends Pacific Championship Series opening, which was set to begin on 8 February and has now been indefinitely postponed. A Pokemon Video Game Championships event in Hong Kong scheduled for 2 February has been cancelled entirely. The WESG Asia-Pacific Finals for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, set to take place in Macau, have also been cancelled Followed by PUBG League, CrossFire, CrossFire Mobile, and so on. Also recently AESF announced the postponement of the inaugural Asian Esports Federation (AESF) e-Masters Chengdu 2020 due to the outbreak of the coronavirus.
The FMX Conference on animation, effects, games and immersive media has just cancelled their upcoming edition because of the worldwide coronavirus Covid-19 pandemic. In a publicly released statement, the organisers wrote: “Taking this step has been very difficult for us but necessary as the health of our international and national partners, guests, speakers, visitors, and team members are our highest priority.”
Then recently Rocket League developer Psynoix has cancelled next month’s World Championship event over the spread of novel coronavirus The live event was due to take place at the Curtis Culwell Center in Dallas, Texas from April 24 to 26 as part of the game’s Season 9 esports activities. But the developer has scrapped this competition to protect the health and safety of its players, fans and staff.
Indian
Internationally, coronavirus has called off dozens of annual festivals and events, and now Indian events have started getting cancelled/ postponed due to the epidemic.
FIFS Federation of Indian Fantasy Sports (FIFS) GamePlan 2020 which was scheduled on 5 March 2020 at Le Meridien, Delhi has been postponed. The recent developments with regards to coronavirus, Federation of Indian Fantasy Sports (FIFS) have decided to postpone the conference. We shall get back to you within a week with rescheduled dates for GamePlan 2020.
Indian Gaming Expo just like every other major public gathering event is reportedly shutting its doors for its IGX 2020 instalment. The event was scheduled from 21 to 22 March at NESCO. According to multiple sources, a lot of sponsors have now raised concerns about the ongoing panic caused by coronavirus (COVID-19). The organizers are likely to take a call on the well-being of the people due to the concerning international health emergency.
Earlier FICCI FRAMES partner country Italy has been pulled out and now the official site of FICCI FRAMES reads in view of the public health concerns and the recent advisory of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, which has strongly recommended to avoid mass gatherings, FICCI has postponed FICCI FRAMES 2020. They have chosen to take this decision in the best interest of our participants and they are looking forward to coming up with the new dates for FICCI FRAMES.