SXSW festival has been canceled over coronavirus fears

he South by Southwest festival, better known as SXSW, is an annual conference held in Austin, Texas, that "celebrate the convergence of the interactive, film, and music industries." It doesn't specialize in games, but interesting games stuff definitely happens there: Last year's event carried details about Halo: The Master Chief Collection, for instance, and we hosted a panel in 2018 on Ultima Underworld, one of the greatest RPGs ever.

There will be no such content coming out of the show this year, however, because there will be no SXSW this year. Just one week before it was scheduled to begin, the city of Austin has cancelled the event just due to the Covid-19 coronavirus outbreak.

"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," event organizers said in a statement.