Update: The organizers of Emerald City Comic-Con confirmed that the event will be postponed to Summer of 2020. More details will be revealed soon. Original story follows.
The Emerald City Comic-Con, which is scheduled to take place on March 12-15 at the Washington State Convention Center in Seattle, announced earlier that the event will push through despite growing concerns on the spread of COVID-19, otherwise known as the novel coronavirus.
In a statement released by Reedpop, it has been revealed that necessary measures are being implemented including the proper cleaning and sanitization across the show following the guidelines set by the U.S. EPA's Emerging Pathogen Policy. Furthermore, the event's organizers assured all attendees and staff that they will be constantly reviewing their health protection activities and other control measures, to ensure the safety of everyone that will participate in the event.
Last Saturday, a state of emergency was declared in Washington after reports surfaced that the virus has been transmitted locally. This means that a patient caught the virus without having traveled to an infected area, nor have direct contact with someone who is recorded to be infected. During the past week, the Game Developers Conference 2020 has been postponed due to multiple cancellations of major participants.
However, it was also announced recently that E3 2020 will be moving ahead as planned despite growing fears over the spread of coronavirus. A statement by E3's organizers revealed that the show will be "moving ahead full speed," but will be monitoring the situation closely. Of course, given that E3 is scheduled to happen in June, the event may still be canceled should the outbreak continue to worsen.
Apart from the postponement and cancellation of some gaming events, the rapid spread of COVID-19 is also affecting the production of some video game consoles. Just last month, Nintendo announced that the release of its upcoming Animal Crossing: New Horizons-themed Switch console, will be delayed in Japan, due to manufacturing delays caused by the coronavirus. The company said at the time that the delay will only be isolated to the Japanese market. However, several analysts predict that Nintendo's supply problem could become global, especially since most of its manufacturing is in China, where the disease reportedly originated.
Furthermore, senior analyst Daniel Ahmad of the market research and consulting firm, Niko Partners, provided a statement regarding the effect of the outbreak on next-gen console manufacturing. According to Ahmad, if console makers are unable to reach full capacity by the end of Q2 2020, then it is more than likely that the upcoming PS5 and Xbox Series X will be delayed or released in limited quantities. Both consoles are scheduled to launch during the holiday season.