The Taipei Game Show is to be postponed until summer after the WHO declared a novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) outbreak a public health emergency of international concern, the show’s organizer, the Taipei Computer Association (台北電腦公會), said yesterday.
The annual show was originally scheduled to begin on Thursday next week.
As 2019-nCoV spreads across the world, participants from China, where the virus was first discovered, and other countries, such as Japan, South Korea, Spain, Germany, the US and Canada, are no longer able to attend the show, the association said in a statement.
To preserve the health and safety of all participants, the show is to be postponed until the summer and would be held at its original location, Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center Hall 1, it said.
While the association a day earlier announced that the show would go on, despite the epidemic, saying that it has undertaken all necessary precautions, its change of heart might have been provoked by online game publisher Gamania Digital Entertainment Co’s (遊戲橘子) decision to withdraw from the event.
Citing local confirmed cases of the virus, Gamania said that at the end of the Lunar New Year holiday it established a team to prevent and combat the disease.
While there is no need for panic, the company said that it would remain cautious and therefore refrain from participating in crowded events held indoors.
The company said that it would halt all production and sales related to the event.
Following Gamania’s announcement, Wanin International Co (網銀國際), Kingston Technology Corp’s Hyper X and Logitech International SA also quit the show, online news outlet Tech News reported yesterday.
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