Gearbox, Blizzard, and Amazon Cancel GDC Appearances Due to Coronavirus

Written by Brandon Hofer on February 28, 2020

News: Three more big companies have revealed that they are pulling out of the 2020 version of Game Developers Conference.

The annual Games Developer Conference is currently scheduled to take place next month in San Francisco. The conference is in jeopardy though as a lot of companies are deciding to cancel their appearances due to concerns about the coronavirus. Earlier today Gearbox, Blizzard, and Amazon Game Tech added their names to the list of companies that were going to be there but have now canceled their plans. All three companies announced their decision on through their respective channels and had the following to say.

Gearbox

” Gearbox today notified GDC organizers that our team will not attend GDC or be able to give their scheduled presentations. Our employees’ health and wellness is our primary concern.

In the development of Borderlands 3, we broke new ground and, in keeping with the spirit and mission of GDC, some of our developers still want to share that innovation and we will support that through digital presentations. More details will be released on that soon.”

Blizzard

” Blizzard will no longer attend this year’s @Official_GDC due to growing concerns related to COVID-19. The health and well-being of our teams is our highest priority.”

Amazon Game Tech

” To our friends across the industry, AWS Game Tech has made the difficult decision to withdraw from the 2020 Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco due to continued concerns over COVID-19.

While we won’t get to see everyone at GDC this year, we still have exciting things to share. AWS Game Tech has decided to host a global online event, open to everyone, to showcase our planned content for GDC and more.”

Other companies such as Microsoft, Sony, Facebook Gaming, Unity, Epic, PUBG Corp, CD Projekt Red, and more have announced they will not be attending GDC this year. So the question then becomes...is it worth it to have GDC at all this year? Do you think it will get outright canceled or will it still take place? Tell us in the comments section below.