PAX East 2021 Physical Event Cancelled Will be Online Instead

ReedPop and Penny Arcade announced that their plans to host PAX East 2021 in Boston, Massachusetts this summer have been canceled. The group will instead opt to turn the event to PAX Online 2021 instead which will take place on July 15 through July 18.

The company assures fans that PAX East will return in 2022, and they are cautiously optimistic that PAX West and PAX Unplugged 2021 will proceed as planned happening in September and December, respectively. However, we will play it by ear as we’ve been doing for over a year due to the Coronavirus outbreak.

PAX Online will attempt to bring the gaming community together virtually.

You can read the statement from ReedPop and Penny Arcade below:

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.

— Kyle Marsden-Kish, PAX Event Director, ReedPop

We’ll be sure to keep you updated on future events.