The Game Developers Conference, which was set to take place March 16 to 20 in San Francisco, Calif. has been postponed due to concerns surrounding the global spread of the coronavirus COVID-19 by its organizers Informa.
Other gaming events and tournaments such as the League of Legends Pro gaming tournament have also suffered the same fate with the Game Developers Conference now added to the list. Started in 1988, GDC has been known to draw a huge audience with most of it coming from an international pool of developers, publishers, press, and more.
The statement sent from the organizers of the GDC read as below;
“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. 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.
For more information, please visit our Frequently Asked Questions page.”
Game Developers Conference postponed over growing Coronavirus concerns
The shocking news came in after several companies, including Sony, Microsoft, EA, and Activision-Blizzard, decided to pull their attendance from GDC 2020 due to concerns surrounding the global spread of COVID-19.
The Coronavirus outbreak has affected a number of events, travel destinations and even economies in several ways forcing many to cancel already planned activities for 2020.
According to reports, all those that had purchased or otherwise acquired a badge to the Game Developers Conference 2020 will receive a full refund with 4-6 weeks, including those who had made hotel bookings within the official GDC room block.
The annual Game Developers Conference brings together members of the video game industry for a week of panels, informative talks, demos, and networking. As of February 24, the World Health Organization (WHO) reports approximately 80,000 confirmed infections of the coronavirus COVID-19, with its risk assessment set at “High” on a global level.
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