The spreading illness that is continuing to increase known as the COVID-19 (coronavirus) has held a monumental swing over the coming events in the gaming industry. This past weekend, the annual Penny Arcade Expo in Boston, Massachusetts was faced with at least a handful of retracting companies who abruptly decided to pull its attendance from the show. First with Sony Interactive Entertainment, followed by Capcom, and CD Projekt Red.
The same was already projected for the approaching Game Developers Conference (GDC) later this month as Sony again alongside Facebook/Oculus announced to be absent from the west coast event as well. Since then, growing concerns have swayed an additional handful of companies who have initially reserved booths at the show to also pull attendance in response.
Inching closer to the event slated for mid-March, it was later disclosed by the mayor of San Francisco London Breed that the city would issue a State of Emergency as rising tensions revolving around the illness has grasped the Californian city. It wasn’t long after that where the organizers of the event made a decision to “postpone” the event.
Staffing verifies that the event is not fully cancelled, but has been rescheduled to arrive at a later date sometime during the summer of 2020:
“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,” the press release tells. “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.”
Elsewhere in the FAQ of the GDC website, raising questions regarding refunds and other details have been addressed from the decision to postpone the here-day show. Paying pass owners are expected to be issued refunds via email. As for the independent developers showcase and Game Developers Conference Awards, each will be livestreamed online the time the event was initially scheduled.
As for speakers who already announced to be present at the show – the organizers share that they can still do so by recording in video form which then can be uploaded to the GDC YouTube to be distributed to interested viewers for no additional cost.
What are your thoughts on the decision made by the GDC staff?
The Game Developers Conference is expected to be scheduled in the summer sometime later in 2020.
Source: Informa Tech
