The administration behind the New York Comic-Con, previously set to be held on October 8th through 11th at the Javits Center in New York City, has cancelled the physical convention. Instead, NYCC's producer ReedPOP is switching to a virtual convention on the same weekend via an online portal it calls the "Metaverse."
In a statement on the NYCC website, ReedPOP promises it will "bring to life four days of incredible content from the biggest studios, publishers, and creators in the business," aided by a partnership with YouTube. This will include panels, workshops, a virtual marketplace for artists and exhibitors, and online hangouts with celebrity guests of the show, all of which run under ReedPOP's new "Metaverse" branding. (Has anyone told Neal Stephenson about this?) The panelists for NYCC's online edition have yet to be revealed, though Hulu, DreamWorks, and CBS All Access are all reportedly scheduled to hold panels.
NYCC going virtual comes in the wake of July's somewhat controversial "Comic-Con@Home" event, held by the organizers of the San Diego Comic Con. SDCC's online show drew some fire from fans for featuring pre-recorded, non-interactive panels and no live chats. NYCC's organizers will reportedly avoid that mistake and offer more opportunities to virtually meet and greet with creators, using Live Chat and Community features obtained through a partnership with YouTube. Notably, despite the two events' similar names, NYCC and SDCC aren't run by the same company; the San Diego Comic Con is owned and operated by a non-profit corporation of the same name.
NYCC is the latest major convention on the circuit to switch to an online model due to COVID-19, and follows the systematic cancellation and/or virtualization of just about every other event on the North American nerd calendar. NYCC was founded in 2006 and was held in February for the first two years of its run. The New York Anime Festival was folded into NYCC starting in 2012, with the two shows running alongside one another from that point forward. As with other comic book conventions in recent days, the "Comic Con" part of the show's title has become a bit of a relic, as NYCC's programming broadly encompasses all of pop culture, even that which has nothing to do with American comics at all. NYCC drew more than 250,000 attendees in 2018.
The company behind the New York Comic Con, ReedPOP, is a division within Reed Exhibitions, an events planner that runs more than 500 trade and hobbyist shows worldwide. In addition to NYCC, ReedPOP organizes the Penny Arcade Expo, BookCon, and other comic conventions in cities such as Chicago, Philadelphia, London, Manchester, and Miami Beach. The newly Metaverse-powered NYCC will be held on October 8th through 11th.
Source: Variety