Gamescom Asia 2020 Singapore cancelled, 2021 event being planned instead

Stop us if you saw this coming from a mile away; the maiden edition of gamescom asia has been officially pushed to 2021 amid the ongoing Covid-19 outbreak.

Originally slated to commence on October 2020 in Singapore, what would’ve been Southeast Asia’s first satellite event for the world’s largest video game convention has been pushed back by exactly a year, and will run from 14 – 17 October 2021 instead.

The location remains the same, which will be at the Suntec Convention & Exhibition Centre.

The cancellation of the 2020 edition of the mainline Gamescom in Cologne, Germany was no doubt the writing on the wall for this one.

However, unlike Gamescom, which will have an online event in place of the cancelled physical event, there will be no such equivalent for gamescom asia, as AAA and indie game publishers alike will prepare for 2021 instead.

“As much as we would have loved to bring the event to life this October, the current global crisis has forced us to recalibrate our wants for gamescom asia. The health and safety of our visitors, exhibitors and staff is paramount.

"Moreover, for an inaugural event, we felt it was important to give the regional gaming community and fans the full experience of what an international event of this scale would be like, and not anything less.

"Today, we confirmed our decision to postpone the live event to 2021 instead,” expressed Mathias Kuepper, Managing Director of Koelnmesse Singapore, the organiser of gamescom asia.

“The team has been in conversation extensively with all stakeholders, partners and the Singapore government over the last few weeks to decide on the best course of action for the safety of all our participants.

"While the common sentiment was hopefulness for large-scale events to go back to normalcy, we agreed that the world is not situationally ready for this to happen.

"With that, we will have to adapt and refocus our efforts on 2021, and offer digital engagements leading up to that date in support of the Asian games industry.”

Though gamescom asia won’t be happening this year, there is still a ton of digital gaming events to look forward to later this year, especially with the slew of online conventions happening in June itself, the aforementioned Gamescom 2020, as well as the digital edition of Tokyo Game Show 2020, among others.

This article was first published in Geek Culture.