After close consultation with partners and the game development industry and community, this year's Game Developers Conference – scheduled to take place in March – has now been postponed.
A statement on the GDC website said the plan was to host the annual event later on in summer and explained how organisers would be working with partners to finalise details and share more information in the coming weeks.
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.
While no reason was provided alongside this, the Frequently Asked Questions page unsurprisingly reveals how the delay is tied to the Novel Coronavirus (COVID19 or 2019-nCoV) outbreak. There's also an entire page dedicated to regular updates about the virus.
As detailed by IGN, GDC will be allowing any speakers who planned on giving presentations at the show an opportunity to make them available online through the GDC YouTube channel and a "free portion" of the GDC Vault.
GDC will also set up online streams for the Independent Games Festival and Game Developers Choice Awards in the originally scheduled week of the event. This news follows on from multiple companies withdrawing from the event, including Microsoft, Sony (PlayStation), EA, and Epic Games. Nintendo was also expected to be in attendance.
[source gdconf.com]
Comments 22
At this rate it will be hard to see the Olympics and e3 going ahead this year. Coronavirus is only just getting warmed up.
At this rate ps5 and Xbox x will get delayed to 2021
Pretty much all major events will be delayed or cancelled this year, more than likely.
The. Games. Must. Keep. Coming. No. Matter. What.
@personauser93 Clearly not the case here
It's amazing how the beginning of 2020 had to start with this virus.
@personauser93 yes because electronic toys matter more than the safety of thousands.
@HappyMaskedGuy
The right thing to do would to cancel the Olympics and E3 this year.
@HappyMaskedGuy they’re already thinking of canceling the Olympics, which I’m not sure if that would be a bad idea. Few things are as global as the Olympics, and holding it in an area where there’s an outbreak would be the fastest way to spread it to every major country. And it’s already been stated that relocating or postponing it would be way too difficult, given the scale of the event. So it may indeed get canceled this year.
E3 isn’t quite as likely to be canceled (though possible if the epidemic worsens). Certainly people do travel internationally for E3, but not nearly at the same scale as the Olympics. I’m a little surprised GDC is being canceled, but the epidemic seems to be at its highest point so it’s likely just a precaution - E3 gives it some time to die down still (and the stakes are lower than with the Olympics).
Either way, hopefully this dies down soon, some countries are being pretty heavily affected.
@ShadJV just reached Africa, and has only started spreading in the middle east. Its only gaining momentum. At our firm all business travel has been halted, same goes for amazon and google.
Anyone attending a mayor event right now where people gather is taking a risk of getting infected. Its just not worth it. And about the olympics, yes it sux but imagine the blns$ of revenue that were expected and all the investments made to have the olympics be hosted in japan. There is mayor pushback from japan to not cancell, naturally.
Just be careful and watchful everyone, and try not to get sick.
People are overreacting to this stupid bug; it’s no fun being sick but people are blowing it way out of proportion.
Health and safety first, then teamwork. Video games are then somewhere down the list xx
@Malones2792 That's correct. We can jump right in, lend a helping hand, and finish some of these games up if we have to! Teamwork makes the dream work!!
They should delay it until June 9th.
@Maschinenmensch strong agree.
@Maschinenmensch @Baker1000 It is absolutely being blown out of proportion, and I'm sure media outlets are banking big on all the extra clicks from people freaking out about it. Plus, we'll be hitting the point very soon where paniced people will start needlessly stocking up on medical supplies causing mass shortages, leading to a whole 'nother mess of problems.
Buuuuuuut, with a virus that has been shown to re-infect those who have just recovered from it, and with the newly discovered possibility that it can be carried by cats/dogs, this is definitely a "better safe than sorry" situation.
Best case scenario, it's contained and dies out in a couple months before becoming a full on pandemic, and everyone wore masks and washed their hands for nothing. Worst case scenario is the decimation of a global population and it's economy, which while unlikely, is currently still very much on the table.
I could see E3 just becoming a digital thing this year. Similar to how Nintendo does theirs but everyone will have to do it......Like there won't be a live event for anything I assume, just watching trailers (directs) and 'live' gameplay done by company staff and maybe special invites. No booths and such.
If people just learned to be a little more considerate and washed their hands and stopped coughing in them
@Ttimer5 Nintendo still attend E3 just don't have a conference. They still have a booth.
@NandN3ds Nintendo won't be at E3 this year if corona is around. Maybe we'll finally get that Nintendo direct though.
This is definitely a big thing, I know some people are trying to act like this is just like the flu but this is way worse.
@andrew20 in fact that has been highly rumoured so if Nintendo do destroy in 2020 Sony and Microsoft should be worried.
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