The New Zealand Games Festival has been pushed back to 2021 due to the Covid-19 outbreak.

As announced on Twitter, the cancellation follows several announcements made by New Zealand's government - international arrivals must self-isolate for 14 days and gatherings of more than 500 people must be cancelled.

"Although our events are typically smaller, we feel people are now becoming, understandably, quite anxious about attending events due to Covid-19," said event organisers.

"We don't want the festival to be anything less than it's supposed to be, and feel morally obliged to keep our community safe."

However, the team behind the event has already booked a venue for 2021. Currently, they are reaching out to speakers and facilitators to see if they will attend the festival next year instead.

Digital survival

While certain events are being cancelled or postponed to next year, others are turning to digital media to stream events.

Last week, Apple confirmed that WWDC 2020 would be online-only. GDC streamed recorded talks after it was cancelled last month. Furthermore, companies such as Microsoft and Ubisoft are looking at the online format to replace E3.

Due to the coronavirus outbreak, the BAFTA Game Awards have turned to a digital format.

We are currently looking for speakers for our inaugural Pocket Gamer Connects Digital - find out more here!