The Game Developers Conference joins the growing list of tech gatherings to be canceled in the wake of the ongoing spread of the coronavirus. The announcement was made on Friday, after major participants like Sony, Microsoft, Facebook and Amazon had already announced they would not be sending representatives to the show over concerns about the coronavirus and the health risk that such gatherings have come to pose.
The conference was slated to happen between the 16th and 20th of March, during which major players in the video games industry like the aforementioned companies were expected to meet with game developers and align on their roadmaps for the impending launch of next-generation consoles and beyond. The organizers of the conference announced that they would be holding a smaller GDC event this Summer, but that is of course assuming the situation has been put under control by then.
Other conferences that have been canceled over coronavirus concerns include the Mobile World Congress and Facebook’s F8 developer conference. And with bigger events like E3 2020, the 2020 Summer Olympics and Gamescom 2020 still to come, one has to wonder how far reaching the effects of the coronavirus spread is going to be if it is not contained soon. Here’s hoping the spread never reaches pandemic levels and things go back to normal.
Were you looking forward to the news and announcements that would’ve come out of the 2020 GDC, or do you think the organizers have made the right decision by pulling the plug on the event? Let us know in the comments section below.