Due to the withdrawal of its biggest names due to the Coronavirus, the GDC 2020 or Game Developers Conference which was to be held from March 16 to 20 in San Francisco is postponed to an unknown date.
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The Covid-19 Coronavirus epidemic is canceling all the biggest high-tech events one by one and is already having serious consequences for the digital economy.
Covid-19 is pushing GDC organizers to push it back to the summer, if possible.
After the Mobile World Congress, the high mass of mobile telephony, the Game Developers Conference is the second major high-tech event to be canceled for fear of the Covid-19 epidemic, PAX East may well be the next. In another genre, the Geneva Motor Show has been banned by the Swiss government, like any gathering of more than 1000 people. In the words of the organizers, the GDC is not canceled, but “Repulsed” on a date still unknown in the summer of 2020.
However, the organizers had few options. One after the other, the main players have canceled their withdrawal. Electronic Arts had been the first, followed by Microsoft, Amazon, Sony and even Facebook who also canceled his own F8 conference. Worse, California, where this GDC was to take place, discovered yesterday its second patient who contracted the Covid-19 virus from a unknown origin, making the authorities fear a community contamination.
In order to minimize the consequences, tickets and hotel nights will be reimbursed, both for visitors and exhibitors. The organizers also announced that they would offer exhibiting companies the opportunity to see their presentation broadcast online on the GDC YouTube channel. Likewise, the events Independent Games Festival and the award ceremony Game Developers Choice Awards will be broadcast on Twitch. Finally, in order to compensate the injured independent developers, the organizers will launch fundraising through Gamedev.world. It will offer a set of games and conferences at free price.
Source: Engadget
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