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Game Developers Conference 2020 Postponed Amid Coronavirus Concerns

After losing multiple major participants over the past few days, GDC has announced that the 2020 event will be postponed until “later in the summer” due to ongoing concerns about the Covid-19 coronavirus outbreak. This year’s Game Developers Conference has been postponed from March to summer in the wake of high-profile withdrawals by companies that had planned to attend. Sony, Microsoft, Epic Games, Unity, Activision Blizzard, Amazon, and Facebook, including Oculus, all canceled plans to attend the show, citing health concerns related to the spread of the novel coronavirus, aka COVID-19.

The event’s organizers said in a statement:

“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,” “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.” 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.

GDC is not the only event in the video game industry affected by the coronavirus outbreak. Concerns about the pandemic have also hit the world of esports hard. Over the past few weeks, multiple events planned in Asia across leagues for games such as Overwatch, PUBG and League of Legends have been canceled, postponed or moved to areas outside of mainland China.

The coronavirus is also having an impact on events outside of GDC like we said above: Sony, Square Enix, Capcom, CD Projekt, and PUBG Corp all pulled out of PAX East (which is now underway in Boston), and earlier today CCP Games announced that EVE Fanfest 2020 will be cancelled. Multiple game tournaments, like IEM Katowice, have also had to deny access to the public, opting to continue as an online only event.

Game Developers Conference is the largest developer-facing event of its kind in North America. It’s only open to industry professionals, but the event hosts presentations and exhibitions from many of the largest game companies in the world who use the conference to promote new games, discuss industry facing events, and share knowledge. The event also hosts the Game Developers Choice awards, celebrating the previous year’s top indie games.

More than 80,000 COVID-19 cases have been reported worldwide, many of which remain in the Hubei province of China, where the virus is believed to have originated. South Korea has seen an increase in patients with COVID-19, up to 977. A cruise ship docked in Japan, the Diamond Princess, housed 691 confirmed cases. Italy has more than 300 people infected with the virus, while Japan and Iran’s numbers likewise continue to rise. The virus has spread to more than 30 countries.

For more information on what’s happening, for more information on the Covid-19 coronavirus, visit the Centers for Disease Control for updates in North America, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control , or the World Health Organization.