PAX East 2021 Canceled & Replaced by PAX Online; Organizers “Cautiously Optimistic” for PAX West & Unplugged

Today organizers ReedPop and Penny Arcade announced that PAX East 2021 has been canceled and replaced with a PAX Online event.

The event, which will obviously take place only online, will happen between Thursday, July 15 and Sunday, July 18. 

That being said, not all hope is lost for those who hope to attend PAX events in person this year, as the organizers are “cautiously optimistic” about managing to run PAX West and PAX Unplugged 2021 as planned on Sept. 3-6 and Dec. 10-12, respectively.

Below you can read the full statement.

“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.”

On the other hand, we already know that the organizers of Gamescom are moving forward with plans to hold a hybrid event (both online and offline) in August.