Facebook, Sony, and Oculus announced that they would not be attending the 2020 Game Developer Conference in the view of the dangerous Coronavirus outbreak and the potential health threats. The GDC 2020 is planned for San Francisco from March 16 through March 20, 2020. As the gaming industry is growing at an unprecedented rate, San Francisco conventions hope to host thousands of attendees from the gaming industry.
Coronavirus Outbreak Forces companies to cancel participation in GDC 2020
Oculus, The Virtual reality company, owned by Facebook, was planned to sponsor several panel discussions and events during the conference. The company said that now the talks will be handled with online interactive sessions, to make sure there is no impact on the same.
Facebook Announced Canalling Participation in an Official Statement
Facebook issued a statement detailing the decision of not attending the conference. “Out of concern for the health and safety of our employees, our dev partners, and the GDC community, Facebook will not be attending this year’s Game Developers Conference due to the evolving public health risks related to COVID-19”.
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The statement also talked about the alternative approach to make up for the cancellation. “We still plan to share the exciting announcements we had planned for the show through videos, online Q&As, and more, and will plan to host GDC partner meetings remotely in the coming weeks.”
Sony also pulled off from GDC 2020
Similarly, Sony also announced that since the various countries have imposed travel restrictions due to the spread of coronavirus, the company wants to exercise precautions to avoid any threats. In a statement, Sony revealed that “We have made the difficult decision to cancel our participation in Game Developers Conference due to increasing concerns related to COVID-19 (also known as coronavirus).
It further said that “We felt this was the best option as the situation related to the virus 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.
We look forward to participating in GDC in the future”
Organizers Say Event Goes as Planned
Despite the companies pulling off the event, the organizers said that the game is still up and will be held as planned as all the prescribed safety and hygiene instructions will be duly followed. The GDC team is following developments around the Novel Coronavirus closely as we take the health and safety of our game development community very seriously,” said the organizers.
They further detailed in the statement that ” Following the strict quarantine laws put in place by the US government and guidance from the Department of Public Health, WHO and CDC, which has seen us put in place enhanced on-site measures, we are confident that the Game Developers Conference will follow in the footsteps of other large and successful international events taking place at the Moscone Center.
Coronavirus Threat Looms on Major Events this Year
Coronavirus outbreak has bothered most of the countries and big organizations in the world as it poses severe epidemic threats. Companies have been pulling off from all the significant events in recent times. The MWC 2020 was also canceled after many companies decided not to participate.