8Bit/Digi

After a series of cancellations by major publishers and studios, it has been announced that the Game Developers Conference 2020 has been cancelled.

Due to concerns over the coronavirus outbreak, numerous studios had pulled out of the Game Developers Conference 2020. At the same time there had been calls to cancel the 2020 event for the same reason. In an announcement that was made on February 28th, the GDC Event Team officially confirmed the cancellation. They have stated,

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.

GDC Event Team has stated that they are working to organize a substitute event for the summer. This is not a grantee, especially with competition from E3, PAX West and Anime Expo.

It started on February 21st when PlayStation, Facebook and Oculus announced that they have cancelled their plans. The reason given was due to concerns over the coronavirus outbreak. Come February 24th and Kojima Productions had announced that they would cancel their participation in GDC.

During the week, other industry titans followed. Electronic Arts cancelled their plans followed by Microsoft and Epic Games. By the end of the week, Twitch, Amazon and Gearbox had also pulled out of GDC 2020.

It’s unclear if any of the off-site events or mixers will be affected by Game Developers Conference 2020 being cancelled. Some may have to rebrand their event while the industry hosted ones have been cancelled outright.

The Game Developers Conference is one of the largest gatherings of professionals from the gaming industry. The 2020 event was suppose to take place between March 16 until March 20th at the Moscone Convention Center and the surrounding areas.

8Bit/Digi is an independent media outlet that provides an insight into the video game community and industry of the San Francisco Bay Area.