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More than two years after a pandemic was declared, many annual conventions remain to be held in online-only formats. Joining that list is this year’s QuakeCon, as Bethesda announced on Wednesday that it would not host any in-person event this year.
“Like you, we're disappointed to not return to Dallas this year,” Bethesda said. “An event of this size requires months of planning, and in this case, we had to make decisions when there was still too much uncertainty to commit to successfully executing an in-person QuakeCon.”
On the bright side, Bethesda said the QuakeCon team is already working on streaming schedules for the virtual convention that will be held on Aug. 18-20. The video game company is also setting up online meetups, and the virtual Bring Your Own Computer (BYOC) session, but more details will not be released until June.
BYOC is one of the most popular events in QuakeCon, which has been part of the annual convention since 1998. As the name suggests, it is a massive LAN party where fans get to bring their computers. BYOC attendance grew from a few hundred in the early days of QuakeCon to thousands in recent years.
While many Bethesda fans may be disappointed that QuakeCon is not following the likes of the Game Developers Conference and PAX West, which both have hosted in-person events, keeping an online-only QuakeCon may still be in the best interest of everyone. While COVID-19 cases have been significantly down in the United States, data posted by John Hopkins as of Wednesday shows a 7-day average of 30,455 new cases and 465 deaths from COVID-19.
The good news is QuakeCon attendees, and BYOC enthusiasts will likely be able to attend in-person events again next year. In the same announcement, Bethesda said it is “committed” to returning to a convention with in-person attendance in 2023.
To those not familiar with QuakeCon, the annual convention highlights franchises from id Software and other studios under Bethesda. Some fans are then speculating if Bethesda will include some “Starfield” teasers at the August convention. But the upcoming space RPG is also highly anticipated to be showcased in Xbox’s rumored summer event in June.
