The organizers of game developers conference have postponed the event after sponsors, attendees, journalists and the developers decided not to attend due to concerns related to the coronavirus.
In recent days, some of the largest participants in this event, including Epic, Unity, Facebook, Sony, Amazon and many others, as well as a large number of journalists and developers who refused to participate in the event. Many companies urged their employees not to travel to the March event in San Francisco.
Here is a statement from the organizers:
After close consultation with our partners in the industry developing games and the community around the globe, we made the difficult decision to postpone the game developer’s Conference in March of this year.
After spending the past year preparing for the show with our Advisory boards, speakers, exhibitors and partners in events, we sincerely upset and disappointed that I can’t accept you at this time.
We want to thank all our customers and partners for their support and open discussions. As we all recall, great things happen when a community unites and connects in GDC. For this reason, we fully intend to hold the event GDC later in the summer. We will work with our partners to clarify the details and will share more information about our plans in the coming weeks.
The organizers also sent an e-mail with answers to questions about the event:
Question: I am a paid member of the GDC 2020 or registrant exhibitions — now this event will be held in March, can I get a refund of their money?
Answer: If you are a registered paid owner, you will receive an email with information about your registration status and any subsequent steps related to the returns that the conference and exhibition will receive in full.
In: What is the situation with hotels if I booked through the website of the hotel GDC?
About: the Persons who booked a hotel room within the block of rooms GDC, don’t have to pay fines or fees associated with their reservation. More information about the next steps will be available early next week.
In: What happens with the negotiations, which would be presented at the game developers conference 2020?
About: our speakers are still able to participate in this event, we intend to make many of the presentations that would be presented at GDC 2020, available for free on the Internet. After the speakers (optional) will present their reports in video format, they will be distributed at the GDC YouTube channel free part of the GDC Vault.
In: What happens with Games Festival and Game Developers Choice Awards — will they remain?
About: We also intend to broadcast a series of performances at the 2020 GDC and the independent games festival and choice of game developers via Twitch during the week when this event was to be held in San Francisco (from 16 to 20 March), that our community can continue to honor and celebrate their best game.
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