The Game Developers Conference event is under some serious concerns of the event being cancelled after they lost even more major players for the event.
Sony, Facebook, EA, Kojima Productions, Microsoft, Epic Games and Unity. All big-name players in the gaming and development space, none of them will be attending GDC this year. With all of them pulling out due to concerns around coronavirus.
Microsoft and Epic Games are the latest to pull out, leaving the running sheet for the event spread thin.
Epic have yet to announce their intentions for what they’ll be doing in their absence, but expect them to have some online presence.
Here at Epic we were excited about participating in GDC 2020. Regrettably, uncertainty around health concerns has made it unviable to send our employees, and so we have made the difficult decision to withdraw attendance.
Stay tuned for Epic news and more through other channels.
— Unreal Engine (@UnrealEngine) February 27, 2020
Microsoft will however be having a digital only event during the GDC dates as they announced in a blog post earlier today.
This event will feature the majority of our planned game developer sessions and experiences, which will be streamed live and available on demand.
The whole thing will be available to watch here, with Microsoft announcing we’ll be able to see their latest developer demos, panel discussions, and behind the scenes looks during their event.
With so many of the big names withdrawing from the event, it’s hard to see whether GDC will continue to go ahead as planned next month.