- The City of Austin cancels SXSW spring festival
- Among the festivities, there was to be a panel from SEGA on upcoming news for the Sonic the Hedgehog series.
- SEGA has only stated the content will now arrive in April.
As the global spread of COVID-19, commonly referred to as the novel coronavirus, increases, particularly in the United States, the city of Austin, Texas, has announced that the SXSW March events will be cancelled. The announcement came Friday via an update on the official SXSW website,[1] and marks the first time in 34 years that the event will not take place. The statement from event organizers reads, in part:
"The City of Austin has cancelled the March dates for SXSW and SXSW EDU...
We are devastated to share this news with you. “The show must go on” is in our DNA, and this is the first time in 34 years that the March event will not take place. We are now working through the ramifications of this unprecedented situation.
As recently as Wednesday, Austin Public Health stated that “there’s no evidence that closing SXSW or any other gatherings will make the community safer.” However, this situation evolved rapidly, and we honor and respect the City of Austin’s decision. We are committed to do our part to help protect our staff, attendees, and fellow Austinites."
For those who do not know or are not aware, among the festivities in this year's SXSW was going to be a panel hosted by SEGA that would feature announcements on the future of the Sonic the Hedgehog series. That panel was set to take place on March 20. As a result of today's announcement, that panel will obviously not take place. SEGA's contingency plans are unknown at this time, but they did put out a statement via Twitter this evening[2], which reads:
"We're sad to see SXSW cancel, but we respect the call and we're working hard to bring our Sonic Panel content to you all in a new format this April!"
We're expecting more details on SEGA's intention to release more information in April in the days to come.