author: Conrad Hazi
GDC 2020 Without PlayStation - Coronavirus Scared off Sony
Sony resigned from GDC 2020 (Game Developers Conference) due to the threat posed by the spreading COVID-19 coronavirus. This is the second event - after PAX East - dropped by PlayStation manufacturer.
- Sony will not appearon the GDC 2020 conference.
- The event will take place on March 16-20 2020.
- This is the second major event without the Japanese company this year.
- We're losing another opportunity to learn something new about PS5.
Not so long ago, Sony announced that due to the spreading outbreak of the new coronavirus, the company is resigning from the PAX East event. As you can see, the situation is developing, as the Japanese company decided not to participate in the next event - GDC 2020.
Business in the shadow of COVID-19
The statement sent to Gamesindustry.biz by the manufacturer of PlayStation is similar to the previous one.
"We have made the difficult decision to cancel our participation in Game Developers Conference due to increasing concerns related to COVID-19 (also known as coronavirus). We felt this was the best option as the situation related to the virus and global travel restrictions are changing daily. We are disappointed to cancel our participation, but the health and safety of our global workforce is our highest concern. We look forward to participating in GDC in the future," wrote Sony.
The organizers informed that the GDC conference will be held despite the coronavirus threat. However, many companies are cautious about the situation and, apart from Sony, also Facebook and Oculus, among others, gave up their participation. Due to flight restrictions and health issues, the biggest problems are faced by Chinese companies, which have been forced to send to the event their employees residing in North America or to give up their participation entirely.
However, the organisers are doing their best to take appropriate action and introduce additional precautions, such as disinfectant aerosols, regular cleaning of frequently touched objects, additional disinfectant gel dispensers and daily carpet cleaning.
We are still waiting for information about PlayStation 5
The GDC conference is mainly addressed to industry representatives and is much less consumer-oriented than PAX East, for example. Some people will say it's not a major loss, but no matter how you look at it, we're missing another opportunity to learn something new about PlayStation 5.