After Sony announced that it would not attend PAX East, the company confirmed that it would also withdraw from this year's Game Developers Conference due to growing concerns about the Corona virus. “We felt this was the best option because the situation around the virus and global travel restrictions change daily,” Sony said in a statement obtained by GamesIndustry. We are disappointed to cancel our participation, but it is the health and safety of our employees around the world that matters to us, and we look forward to participating in GDC in the future.” This year's Game Developers Conference is scheduled for March 16-20 and will be held at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. It is noteworthy that the mayor of Boston contacted Sony, asking them to cancel their decision to withdraw from this year's PAX East fair, explaining that the decision should have been motivated by "facts, not fear."
The mayor of Boston – the US city hosting PAX East – sent a letter to Sony CEO Kenichiro Yoshida stating that the decision to withdraw would reinforce bad stereotypes about Chinese citizens and was fueled by "confusion and a lack of information". "These fears reinforce bad stereotypes that generations of Asians have worked to dismantle," Walsh said in the letter. Boston is united to dispel these harmful and misguided fears.
Okaz (Jeddah) @okaz_online
