Just in the past week or so, we have learned about a number of game developers and publishers that are pulling out of planned trips to the Game Developers Conference (GDC) and even PAX East 2020. Studios that had planned on attending one or both of these industry events have cancelled their plans due to the ever growing threat of the latest coronavirus (COVID-19).
We know that Sony and Facebook will not be going to GDC, which is scheduled to run from March 16 - March 20, 2020. Sony has since also revealed that they will not have a showing at PAX East (February 26 - March 1, 2020). The company had originally planned on attending and showing off games like The Last of Us Part II and Final Fantasy VII Remake.
Via a LinkedIn posting EA said that they will be "limiting (their) presence" at GDC. According to Product Development specialist for EA Alex Sherer, this limited presence includes "cancelling our participating in official GDC events" as well as urging all EA employees to not travel to San Francisco for the conference. An additional statement from EA was provided to PC Gamer yesterday.
"Having closely followed the global situation with Coronavirus and with the recent escalation of cases in new regions, we have decided to take additional steps to protect the wellbeing of our employees including the restriction of all non-essential travel," the statement provided to us reads.
"As a result we are also cancelling our official participation at GDC and limiting attendance to other events. We are continuing to monitor the situation and will adjust guidelines to our employees as we feel is appropriate."
"As a result we are also cancelling our official participation at GDC and limiting attendance to other events. We are continuing to monitor the situation and will adjust guidelines to our employees as we feel is appropriate."
Square Enix made the decision to pull out of PAX East 2020 back back on February 21st. The studio had planned to have a number of appearances including a panel focusing on the art of Final Fantasy XIV, a developer signing and photo opportunity, and a planned fan gathering. Again, these have all been cancelled. The studio says that they will still host the Final Fantasy XIV booth on the show floor (#15010). They will still also host the Ruby Weapon battle challenge, New Player Experience, and "photo opportunities."
On February 20, Capcom also announced that they would not host a planned Monster Hunter meet and greet that was to take place during PAX East.
Earlier on February 25, we learned that CD Projekt RED is also cancelling their plans to attend PAX East. Though they apparently weren't going to have Cyberpunk 2077 there, they did plan on showing off other products. Now, there will be nothing shown off from the Polish game development studio.
This was revealed by way of a couple of tweets from Stephanie Bayer, the North American Head of Communications for CD Projekt RED.
PUBG Corp has also announced that they are cancelling all of their planned events for PAX East and GDC. The studio was going to hold a happy hour event for fans at a local Boston bar on Friday. A statement from the company says that they will reschedule for an upcoming event "once the coronavirus is under control and travel returns to normal."
If you aren't really clear on what the deal is with the latest coronavirus (COVID-19) or even why it's being taken very seriously by these companies, there is a lot of information at the World Health Organization's website.
