TwitchCon, a major biannual convention dedicated to the gaming culture and streaming service Twitch, has been canceled in San Diego over health and safety concerns related to the coronavirus pandemic.
An update on TwitchCon San Diego and what comes next. pic.twitter.com/ft2P5gtRX2
— TwitchCon (@TwitchCon) June 18, 2020
Festival organizers announced the news on Thursday in a tweet and a blog post, saying, “We are gutted that we won’t be able to join all of you in person to connect and show you what we’ve been creating for you over the past year. While we can’t gather in person, we’re exploring ways that we could join forces in an alternate dimension later this year. We’ll keep you posted.” This statement gives hope that maybe the event will be held online later this year.
The event for the Amazon-owned streaming service was scheduled to take place this fall from September 25 to September 27 in San Diego. It is run by Twitch and offers meet-and-greets, signings, e-sports tournaments, and access to games that will be released later.
Even though the COVID-19 pandemic has been monitored closely over the past few months by the organizers of the convention, the decision to cancel the upcoming San Diego Event followed the cancelation of the same event in Amsterdam back in March, which was about to take place on May 2 and May 3.
An important update on TwitchCon Amsterdam: https://t.co/PDYUMetQtn pic.twitter.com/SA1wVIs8mX
— TwitchCon (@TwitchCon) March 6, 2020
On average, approximately 25,000 people attend the San Diego Convention Center in three days, including video game fans, newbies of the industry, and its top representatives.
Other gaming events have been canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic as well. Among them, there are Game Developers Conference 2020, the Night City Wire online presentation, and BlizzCon 2020.
