General advice at the moment is to stay away from people, self-isolate if you get a cough or a fever, and avoid all gatherings of people that you don't have to go to. You would think then, especially given the slew of event cancellations that we've seen recently, that all of the other events would be going the same way. Well, Gamescom 2020 is being, let's call it optimistic, about the way the world will deal with things, and is saying it is still planning on going ahead.
The event takes place in August, but a lot of the current data and predictions regarding coronavirus have the virus sticking around long past that, and resurfacing properly in September again when the weather begins to get colder. Of course, it's almost impossible to predict, especially given the somewhat lacklustre response to the virus from certain countries. Gamescom going ahead would be lovely, but it's hard not to see this as merely kicking the can down the road instead of just dealing with it.
They are just following what has been set down by Cologne though. In a statement released on the Gamescom Twitter account, they explain everything in full. "On 10.03.2020, the city of Cologne banned all major events with more than 1,000 participants up to and including 10.04.2020 on the basis of a decree issued by the state government on the same day. Since gamescom takes place at the end of August 2020, we are currently not affected by this decree."
That all makes sense, but despite what the overall gist of the statement is, it does seem as though they are prepared to call the whole thing off. "Should gamescom be postponed or cancelled by Koelnmesse, all ticket purchasers of the official ticket shop will be reimbursed for the already paid visitor tickets." This is all good and well, but there's no comment here regarding the companies going to the event.
The event sees literally hundreds of thousands of people packed into the venue, and it isn't the most hygienic place at the best of times. It could well be that the state of things has improved before August, but it's definitely worth keeping all of this in mind if you're planning on going to the event. It might be the proper start of the events season again, but it could also be the last event on this year due to the predicted rise in coronavirus cases when the temperature drops again.
In similar-ish news, we're also hearing that Cyberpunk 2077 is still on track to release when planned despite Coronavirus.