The 2020 Game Developers Conference has now been postponed due to growing concerns over the coronavirus. The industry-wide event that was set for San Fransisco between March 16 to 20 will get pushed into “later in the 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,” reads the update from GDC.
Participants for the event leaving grew as did concerns over the coronavirus. People who reserved their spots at this year’s conference and booked hotels will get refunded, which was confirmed on Twitter by GDC organizer Simon Carless.
— Simon Carless (@simoncarless) February 29, 2020
For those waiting to get reimbursed, that will take four to six weeks according to a tweet from GDC attendee and CEO of ICO Partners, Thomas Bidaux.
GDC "postponed"
– all tickets refunded (will take time to process)
– speakers invited to submit their talks for them to be distributed free online in the coming
– some events will be organised still, but purely online, streamed on Twitch pic.twitter.com/JYw7EjD7E6— Thomas Bidaux 🌠 🔜 GDC (@icotom) February 29, 2020
Other financial damages may occur to some individuals. In an attempt to correct the issue, a fundraiser from March 27 to April 3 has been started by Gamedev.world, amongst others.
Last week we reported that PlayStation and Facebook had left the conference due to the spreading virus. Electronic Arts and Kojima Productions followed the same path by skipping GDC earlier this week, along with Microsoft, Epic Games, Iron Galaxy Studios, Amazon, and Unity. Other industry names like Kotaku’s Jason Schrier also decided to stay home. Yesterday, the journalist guessed the cancellation of the event, which he was not far off from since the date got pushed into the summer.
Sad to say it, but I'm cancelling my GDC trip. I suspect that the show will be officially cancelled by the end of the day
— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier) February 27, 2020
Keep updated on the current situation with the coronavirus by visiting the Centers for Disease Control for Americans, or international readers should visit the World Health Organization.
