The Game Developers Conference (better known as GDC) is one of the most important annual meetings for professional video game developers. This event (which lasts approximately one week) includes exhibitions, networking events, award ceremonies such as the Independent Games Festival and the Game Developers Choice Awards, and a variety of tutorials, lectures, and panel discussions with professionals from the industry on topics related to video games, such as programming, design, audio, production, management and visual arts.
As such the GDC is one of the most important points for the video game industry and many companies take advantage of it to advertise and / or show their new products. La GDC 2020 is scheduled to take place in San Francisco on March 16 and hso far two large companies have canceled their participation in it, due to fears related to the coronavirus.
The two companies that have announced their retirement are Facebook Inc. and Sony Corp. About it Facebook commented the following:
"GDC is always a highlight of our gaming event lineup, yet the health of our employees and the gaming community as a whole comes before anything else," Facebook said in a blog post. "Due to evolving health concerns surrounding COVID-19, Facebook's AR / VR and Gaming teams will not be attending GDC this year."
Besides that also recently announced that it would cancel its own Global Marketing Summit. yearly due to coronavirus concerns. That event also took place at the Moscone Center in San Francisco a week earlier, March 9-12.
Although Oculus' loss from the event is certainly a minor blow for the organizers, lSony's cancellation is much more important, since in this Sony conference was scheduled to demonstrate its next PlayStation 5 at the event.
A spokesman for Sony said the company was prioritizing security concerns as countries enact travel restrictions to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
The company had previously announced that it would not participate in PAX East, a Boston-based gaming event that will run from February 27 to March 1, over similar fears.
"We have made the difficult decision to cancel our participation in the Game Developers Conference due to growing concerns related to COVID-19"
“We felt this was the best option as the virus situation 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. " Sony said in a statement.
However, in the midst of these high-profile retreats, GDC organizers said they still plan to hold the event as planned, with proper precautions. GDC organizers responded to the news by saying in a statement the following:
"We believe that based on the strict US quarantine around coronavirus and a host of improved measures on site, we can run a safe and successful event for our community".
The spread of the virus has also claimed a series of events directly. El Mobile World Congress Annual GSM Association in Barcelona was canceled on February 12 after dozens of exhibitors had canceled their plans to attend.
The annual conference Accelerate 2020 from Fortinet Inc., also scheduled for Barcelona, was canceled around the same time.
Even though other companies are deciding whether to go ahead with their own events. Potentially at-risk events include the Linux Foundation's Kaspersky Security Analyst Summit and KubeCon, CloudNativeCon, and Open Source Summit China.
Si you want to know more about it, you can check the communications released by Facebook this link or the one that Sony also released this link.