Some Major Companies Pull out of the GDC Conference 2020 due to coronavirus
It’s no doubt that Corona Virus is panicking people all over the world, including gaming companies. Game Developer Conference was supposed to be held March 16-20 in San Francisco, but organizers say that the event will be postponed till summer.
“After close consultation with our partners in the game development industry and community around the world, we’ve made the difficult decision to postpone the Game Developers Conference this March.
Having spent the past year preparing for the show with our advisory boards, speakers, exhibitors, and event partners, we’re genuinely upset and disappointed not to be able to host you at this time.
We want to thank all our customers and partners for their support, open discussions, and encouragement. As everyone has been reminding us, great things happen when the community comes together and connects at GDC. For this reason, we fully intend to host a GDC event later in the summer. We will be working with our partners to finalize the details and will share more information about our plans in the coming weeks.”
List of Companies that pulled out of GDC 2020
And these are really BIG names
1- Sony
After they pulled out of attending PAX East 2020, Sony announced the following
“We have made the difficult decision to cancel our participation in the Game Developers Conference due to increasing concerns related to COVID-19 (also known as coronavirus). we felt this was the best option as the situation related to the virus and global travel restrictions are changing daily. We are disappointed to cancel our participation, but the health and safety of our global workforce is our highest concern. We look forward to participating in GDC in the future.”
2- Facebook
“Out of concern for the health and safety of our employees, our dev partners, and the GDC community, Facebook will not be attending this year’s Game Developers Conference due to the evolving public health risks related to COVID-19. We still plan to share the exciting announcements we had planned for the show through videos, online Q&As, and more, and will plan to host GDC partner meetings remotely in the coming weeks.”
3- Oculus Gaming
“Bringing together an international community of game developers, GDC is always a highlight of our annual event programming. Sadly, we’re unable to participate this year.
Out of concern for the health and safety of our employees, our dev partners, and the GDC community as a whole, Facebook’s AR/VR and Gaming teams won’t be attending this year’s Game Developers Conference due to the evolving public health risks related to COVID-19. We’re removing our booth footprint and advising all employees to refrain from traveling to the show. We plan to host GDC partner meetings remotely in the coming weeks. We’re long-term partners with UBM, GDC’s parent company, and we’ll continue to collaborate with them and our partners in their efforts to support the game industry and gaming community. We plan to be at GDC next year and beyond.
We’re committed to building the future of immersive gaming alongside the VR developer community. We still plan to share the exciting announcements we had planned for the show, but in a digital format with videos, online Q&As, and more. We’re excited to share and celebrate the accomplishments of our developer partners, and we’re happy that even more people can join in online. Stay tuned for more details!
This was a difficult decision, but it’s the right call to make at this time. As always, we’ll have more to share in the weeks ahead.
Oculus is investing heavily to help our developers succeed and deliver amazing experiences to the VR community. And we’re committed to building the future of gaming alongside our growing developer community.
Thanks for your patience and understanding.”
The previous 3 were on the same day. The following companies were announced later
- Kojima Productions
- Unity Technologies
- Electronic Arts
- Microsoft
- Epic Games
- Unreal Engine
- Amazon
- Activision Blizzard
- Gearbox
Related: Double-Standard Kojima will attend the BAFTA festival despite Coronavirus.