Square Enix Canceling Some Final Fantasy XIV and XI Events at PAX East Due to Coronavirus Outbreak

Square Enix usually has a strong Final Fantasy XIV presence at PAX East, but unfortunately this year something got in the way.

The publisher announced that due to concerns caused by the Coronavirus outbreak, the game’s staff from Japan who was supposed to be in attendance will stay home, causing the cancellation of some planned events.

You can read the changes below.

• Panel Session: The Artwork of FINAL FANTASY XIV: A Look Behind the Screen
  We will be cancelling the on-stage panel session due to the absence of the staff members who were scheduled to attend. However, we will be hosting a livestream live from Japan (in English & Japanese) that our fans can view on Saturday, February 29 at 8:00 PM ET on the FINAL FANTASY XIV Twitch channel.
• Developer Signing Sessions & Photo Opp
  We will be cancelling the signing sessions and photo opportunities, scheduled to take place on Saturday, February 29 and Sunday, March 1.
• Fan Gathering
  We have also cancelled our planned PAX East fan gathering event, slated for Friday, February 28. We are looking forward to hosting future fan gatherings in North America and we’ll share more details on dates and locations in the future.

This year we were also supposed to see a Final Fantasy XI fan gathering, but that has been canceled as well. The fan gathering included a presentation hosted by Producer Akihiko Matsui and Director Yoji Fujito, and Square Enix is planning to deliver the information in a different form.

If you’d like to learn more about Final Fantasy XIV, you can read our recent interview with Naoki Yoshida and Banri Oda,  our review of the latest expansion, and our article explaining why it features the best story among all the tales told by the Final Fantasy series.

Incidentally, we have some recent official screenshots of the patch, and the previous gallery.

A few weeks ago we also learned that the game has passed 18 million registered users.

You can also enjoy the report on our latest visit to the Eorzea Cafe in Tokyo, one  about the latest orchestra concert, and our look at the recent uniqlo collaboration.

Final Fantasy XIV is currently available for PS4 and PC. Last month, Xbox boss Phil Spencer pledged to help bring the game to Xbox One as well.

About the author

Giuseppe Nelva

Proud weeb hailing from sunny (not as much as people think) Italy and long-standing gamer since the age of Mattel Intellivision and Sinclair ZX Spectrum. Definitely a multi-platform gamer, he still holds the old dear PC nearest to his heart, while not disregarding any console on the market. RPGs (of any nationality), MMORPGs, and visual novels are his daily bread, but he enjoys almost every other genre, prominently racing simulators, action and sandbox games. He is also one of the few surviving fans on Earth of the flight simulator genre.

More Stories by Giuseppe Nelva