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PAX East 2021 officially canceled with PAX Online returning in July

PAX West and PAX Unplugged are still tentatively scheduled to go on in September and December 2021 respectively.

TJ Denzer

March 29, 2021 9:01 AM

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As everyone stays relatively cautious about in-person events due to the remaining effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, we’ve already seen shifting among the schedule as many of the usual event holders make decisions as to whether or not they’re going on or not this year, or whether they pivot to an online format. With several events throughout the year, PAX finally spoke up in regards to its schedule this year. PAX East 2021 is officially canceled and PAX Online will be returning to fill its place. PAX West and PAX Unplugged are still scheduled to go on later in the year.

Event runners ReedPop and Penny Arcade made official announcements about PAX East and PAX Online 2021 in a statement made on March 29, 2021. According to the statement, the in-person that usually takes place around the March time (and did in 2020 as one of the last regular events) has officially been called off. It was tentatively scheduled for June to try to wait out the COVID-19 situation but the organizers have still deemed it too dangerous to go on. PAX West will currently be the next possible in-person event in September 2021.

Since we can't wait until September to reconnect with the wonderful PAX community, PAX Online will return July 15-18.

Read the full statement at https://t.co/ptaZiGTazE

— PAX (@pax) March 29, 2021

It’s not all entirely bad. Last year with PAX West 2020 getting canceled, the organizers used the opportunity to introduce PAX Online. That will be the case in lieu of PAX East this year, once again giving players a week full of game reveals, demos, and further PAX Online coverage during the weekend of July 15 to July 18. It also comes just after the recently announced Steam Next Fest taking place in June 2021.

PAX West is currently scheduled to take place in person on September 3 to September 6 and PAX Unplugged will go on during December 10 to December 12. Stay tuned as we wait to see if these events also go the way of PAX East 2021.

TJ Denzer

Senior News Editor

TJ Denzer is a player and writer with a passion for games that has dominated a lifetime. He found his way to the Shacknews roster in late 2019 and has worked his way to Senior News Editor since. Between news coverage, he also aides notably in livestream projects like the indie game-focused Indie-licious, the Shacknews Stimulus Games, and the Shacknews Dump. You can reach him at tj.denzer@shacknews.com and also find him on Twitter @JohnnyChugs.