The COVID-19 coronavirus has been a cause for concern for people all over the globe. In the recent past, it has led to many events having been delayed or altogether canceled. These include the likes of Google I/O, GDC 2020, and more. In fact, only a couple of days back, Microsoft ended up turning its MVP summit into an online-only event.
Now, Minecraft Festival has joined the growing list of events that have been delayed indefinitely due to coronavirus fears. The event will not be occurring in September as was initially supposed to be the case, though Minecraft Live will be continuing ahead as planned.
Microsoft has remarked specifically on this situation being "a little different" from all the other cases of tech events that have been affected by the coronavirus. More specifically, it has stated that although it was too soon to determine whether the virus would directly affect the planned date for September, what is clear is that the company cannot go ahead with organizing an event of this scale amid all the chaos. It has been noted that collaborating with other partners and exhibitors that are involved with this event is simply not possible at the moment, given how inconsistent the traveling situation around the globe currently is.
As such, the event has indefinitely been postponed with any clear sign of resumed planning not being apparent at the moment. It does seem like this year"s Minecraft Festival may end up being canceled altogether though, as Microsoft has mentioned, "[...] we have decided to postpone. That way, we can make sure that next year"s event will be the amazing one that our community expects and deserves."
The Minecraft Live event, meanwhile, will be happening later this year, though no fixed date has been confirmed as of yet. This is because unlike the former event, this one is live-streamed straight to users" devices, as opposed to requiring a large number in attendance.