Subsequent to multiple companies confirming a nuh-uh no-show, the annual GDC tech event in San Francisco has been suspended, pending a potential re-schedule “later in the summer” assuming humanity even survives until then.
Since its 1988 debut, GDC has become an industry institution, and features the Game Developers Choice Awards and Independent Games Festival. Originally expected to open between 16-20 March, GDC 2020 organisers have now “made the difficult decision to postpone” the expo, according to its website.
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.
We want to thank all our customers and partners for their support, open discussions and encouragement. As everyone has been reminding us, great things happen when the community comes together and connects at GDC. 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.
Over the last week or so, most of GDC’s marquee sponsors including Microsoft, Amazon, and Unity dropped out, citing concerns about the coronavirus – which is currently at 88 infections and two deaths in the US. Two healthcare workers in San Francisco tested positive for COVID-19 this weekend, and are being treated in Sacramento. For some perspective, however, flu has clocked 32 million infections and 18,000 deaths in the US this season. So, don’t worry about it.
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Not yet, anyway.