Capcom has confirmed that it will not be showing Dead Rising 2 at the E3 2009 expo this year after an outbreak of Swine Flu in Osaka, Japan and continued concerns about how sensible a public conference is in the face of a pandemic. While other Capcom games will be on show thanks to the teams already being in the US, the Japanese publisher wishes to forego international travel where possible.
The Swine Flu outbreak has met with the usual mixed responses in the public and media, but tensions are currently running high over the topic in Japan where a massive increase in recent cases has caused the Japanese government to advise against international travel.
Japan currently has more than 191 confirmed cases of the Swine Flu virus and more than 4400 schools and public facilities have been closed in the face of the outbreak.
"Our Capcom guys are not coming to E3 because of the Japanese government restrictions," said Capcom's Chris Kramer, Senior Director, Communications and Community to Kotaku. "The company is taking the advisory very seriously."
"Dead Rising 2 is the only game we won't be able to showcase at E3, because it's at an early stage of development and the team is not comfortable having anyone else demo the code," Kramer said.
News from other Japanese developers runs along similar lines, with Koei also scaling back plans and intending to only have a minimal presence at the show. The ESA however, which organises E3, has said that it doesn't believe that Swine Flu will heavily impact on the show.
Is Capcom over-reacting? Let us know what you think in the forums, or drop in the Serious Discussion forum and tell us what you think about the pandemic in general.
The Swine Flu outbreak has met with the usual mixed responses in the public and media, but tensions are currently running high over the topic in Japan where a massive increase in recent cases has caused the Japanese government to advise against international travel.
Japan currently has more than 191 confirmed cases of the Swine Flu virus and more than 4400 schools and public facilities have been closed in the face of the outbreak.
"Our Capcom guys are not coming to E3 because of the Japanese government restrictions," said Capcom's Chris Kramer, Senior Director, Communications and Community to Kotaku. "The company is taking the advisory very seriously."
"Dead Rising 2 is the only game we won't be able to showcase at E3, because it's at an early stage of development and the team is not comfortable having anyone else demo the code," Kramer said.
News from other Japanese developers runs along similar lines, with Koei also scaling back plans and intending to only have a minimal presence at the show. The ESA however, which organises E3, has said that it doesn't believe that Swine Flu will heavily impact on the show.
Is Capcom over-reacting? Let us know what you think in the forums, or drop in the Serious Discussion forum and tell us what you think about the pandemic in general.
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