Fear over the spread of COVID-19 at large scale gatherings has led several companies to pull out of the Game Developers Conference 2020.
[Update: GDC has been postponed until later this year.]
The GDC is currently set to take place March 16 – 20 in San Francisco, but the number of developers nixing their attendance plans has put the conference’s ability to continue in question.
So far these companies have announced they will cancel their GDC 2020 panel appearances and presentations:
- Microsoft Game Stack
- Sony
- Epic Games
- Unity
- Kojima Productions
- Facebook / Oculus Gaming
Microsoft and Facebook both stated they will still make announcements during the GDC week, but those developments will arrive digitally rather than in person.
Unity Technologies CEO John Riccitiello additionally commented on the decision to nix the company’s previously planned GDC showcase:
Unfortunately, this year, after much thought and deliberation, we have made the difficult decision to pull out of GDC 2020. While we did not make this decision lightly, the current conditions with COVID-19 (also known as Novel Coronavirus) present too much risk. We take our employees’ wellbeing very seriously. We do not want any Unity employee, partner, community member or developer to compromise their health and safety unnecessarily.
As of this point the GDC 2020 schedule page still lists Epic, Microsoft, and other companies that have pulled out on the official schedule.
Stay tuned to GameSkinny for more news about changes to the Game Developers Conference and other major game trade shows in the coming weeks.
