Coronavirus updates: Gamescom has been cancelled

By Steven Messner
last updated

An overview of how Covid-19 is affecting game conventions, esports tournaments, and game development.

(Image credit: Future)

Covid-19, referred to more generally as the coronavirus, is an infectious disease that has spread to more than 100 countries in the short months since it was first documented in China. With cases soaring over 110,000 and continuing to climb, the World Health Organization has declared that the coronavirus is officially a pandemic (opens in new tab).

What does this all have to do with video games? The outbreak of Covid-19 is already having an impact on some of the major expos and industry events, as well as on the production of some games. Over the past week, major game companies have responded to the outbreak, canceling community events, trade shows, and even announcing delays. To help you stay informed, we've created this guide and will continue to update it with all the major news related to coronavirus and the games industry.

The lastest news on coronavirus in videogames

Coronavirus effects on games and community events 

Similarly to major conventions, coronavirus is also having an effect on esports tournaments, as well as game development itself. Here's a breakdown of the latest news: 

What is coronavirus? 

Here's an excellent overview addressing the myths (opens in new tab) and truth of coronavirus.

According to the World Health Organization, coronaviruses are a family of common upper-respiratory viral infections which cause illness in humans. A novel form of coronavirus identified at the end of 2019 is known as Covid-19, and has since spread to over 48 countries at an alarming rate. There are an estimated 80,000 confirmed cases, but because coronavirus can be asymptomatic (meaning those infected don't always present symptoms), and is highly contagious, it's expected that the number of diagnosed cases will climb exponentially higher in the coming months.

For more information on the Covid-19 coronavirus, visit the Centers for Disease Control for updates in North America, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, or the World Health Organization. 

Steven Messner
Steven Messner

With over 7 years of experience with in-depth feature reporting, Steven's mission is to chronicle the fascinating ways that games intersect our lives. Whether it's colossal in-game wars in an MMO, or long-haul truckers who turn to games to protect them from the loneliness of the open road, Steven tries to unearth PC gaming's greatest untold stories. His love of PC gaming started extremely early. Without money to spend, he spent an entire day watching the progress bar on a 25mb download of the Heroes of Might and Magic 2 demo that he then played for at least a hundred hours. It was a good demo.

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