GDC 2020 Cancelled After Several Companies Pulled Out Due to Coronavirus Fears
The organizing team behind the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco that was scheduled to take place next month have announced that they officially cancelled the event. The team is now hoping to reschedule the event to “later in the summer”.
The past two weeks has seen almost all of the event’s top corporate sponsors pulling out due to coronavirus concerns or deciding not to send staff or representatives to the conference. Some of the top names that pulled out include Microsoft, Facebook, Sony, Amazon as well as Epic. The statement announcing the cancellation of the event did not make any references to the virus.
The company that is behind the GDC stated that it will be issuing full refunds to the conference and expo attendees but expressed hope that it would host the event at a later date this summer. It stated that it would work with partners to finalize the details of its future plans and that it would share more information on its plans in the coming weeks.
The coronavirus outbreak has hit the tech industry hard, prompting delays in new hardware and game releases as well as the cancellations of a series of tech events that were scheduled to take place in the first quarter of this year.
Some of the companies that dropped out of the GDC 2020 event include:-
Sony
It was the first major tech company to pull out of the GDC event. Sony pulled out of the conference just a day after announcing that it was also pulling out of PAX East.
Facebook and Oculus Gaming
On the same day that Sony announced that it was pulling out of the GDC, Facebook and Oculus Gaming also pulled out of the conference and announced that it would be encouraging its staff not to attend. Facebook also followed up by cancelling its own F8 software developer conference out of coronavirus concerns.
Kojima Productions
Kojima studio head Hideo Kojima along with its AI programmer Eric Johnson were scheduled to speak at the GDC 2020 but the company announced it won’t be attending.
Unity Technologies
Unity Technologies owns the game engine Unity. In a blog on Thursday, the company had also announced that it won’t be attending the GDC conference this year. It however added that it would showcase whatever it had in store (for the conference) in the coming weeks.
Electronic Arts
The company announced the cancellation of its “official participation” at the GDC 2020 and also stated that it was planning to limit its attendance of other events. It didn’t reveal whether it also planned to limit its employees from attending the events.
Microsoft
Through its Game Stack blog, Microsoft announced its decision not attend the GDC 2020. It instead opted to stream sessions as well as the game developer experiences online.
Unreal Engine
Unreal Engine posted a Twitter updated stating that it won’t attend the conference.
Epic
Epic also announced its decision not to attend the GDC 2020 via a Twitter post.
Amazon
Amazon announced its decision to withdraw from the GDC 2020 on Friday. It revealed it planned to host a global online event which will showcase what it had planned for the conference.
Activision Blizzard
Made an announcement on Twitter on Friday on its decision not to attend the conference while citing “growing concerns related to COVID-19.”
Gearbox
The company published its statement cancelling its attendance of the GDC 2020 on Twitter stating that its employees’ health and wellness was a “primary concern”. It announced that the developers that worked on Borderlands 3 would be able to provide digital presentations at a later date.
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