Enlarge / The state of GDC 2020 as of 3:00pm (Eastern) on February 28. Most of the major sponsors have withdrawn.
Attempts to contain and mitigate the spread of novel coronavirus disease COVID-19 are wreaking havoc on travel plans around the globe, and the annual Game Developers Conference is no exception. The majority of major sponsors for GDC 2020 in San Francisco have already pulled out a little more than two weeks ahead of the event’s scheduled March 16 start. As of publication time, however, the event is still on, which raises the question: what would it take to make the GDC cancel?
On February 28 (Friday), GDC posted an update saying, “We are closely monitoring the COVID19 (coronavirus) situation and want to assure everyone that your health and safety are a top priority. If our assessment of the situation changes, based on new and evolving developments or updated information, we will promptly update this statement regarding the status of GDC 2020 accordingly.”
Sony and Facebook both backed out on February 20, the first of the dominoes to fall. Since then, other cancellations have followed rapidly. EA and Kojima Productions both backed out on February 24, then Unity, Microsoft, Epic Games (and Unreal Engine) bowed out on February 27, with Amazon and Activision/Blizzard following on February 28.
Read 2 remaining paragraphs | Comments
Source: Ars Technica – GDC running out of time to cancel as Amazon, Blizzard join no-show list