GDC 2020 organizers have announced that the event will be postponed to a later date after many firms have opted to not attend it. The event which was set to start in March is postponed to a later date that has not been announced yet. This comes amid the growing health concerns after the coronavirus outbreaks all around the world.
This comes as no surprise as many gaming companies have withdrawn from the event this year. This includes big studios like EA, Unity, Kojima Productions, PlayStation, and others. The latest gaming companies to opt-out were Epic Games and Microsoft. Both the studios have cited health risks that the virus puts their employees and the overall attendees.
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.
The announcement was made in a note that was posted on the official GDC website. While there is no confirmation of new dates, the note does mention that the organizers intend to host the event later this summer.
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.
In the last few days, Microsoft and Epic Games both announced that the companies will not be attending GDC this year. While Epic Games did not mention coronavirus in its statement, Microsoft, on the other hand, was clear cut about the health and safety of players developers and employees.
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