The Game Developers Conference (GDC) is postponed. The organizers have that on February 29, 2020 in a short explanation communicated. Specifically, it says: “We plan to host a GDC event later this summer.”
Job market
The details will be discussed with the partners involved and the public will be informed in the coming weeks. The GDC organizer, a British company called Informa, gives no reason for the shift, but of course the coronavirus (Covid-19) should be the trigger.
The wording “a GDC event” suggests that it could possibly be a smaller conference or an online campaign – at least not the same GDC as it is not now. This should also be difficult to do because many game developers are probably already planned elsewhere.
Informa says they want to try to record the now postponed or canceled lectures together with the speakers and publish them online as a video for free. Details will follow later. Two awards ceremonies are scheduled to be shown on Twitch in the original GDC week.
The developer conference was supposed to take place in San Francisco from March 16-20, 2020. As in the previous year, around 30,000 visitors were expected. The GDC is aimed at professional developers, not game fans. Tickets start at $ 350, and around $ 2,500 is due for full access every five days.
There is access to job exchanges, a trade fair with new developer tools and hardware, but above all to hundreds of lectures by other professionals. Purchased tickets should be fully refunded.
Immediately before the postponement, Activision, Blizzard and Amazon announced that they would not be attending the conference. There were also cancellations from a number of smaller companies such as Gearbox Software, Iron Galaxy Studios and Modus Games.
Similar to the unusual Mobile World Congress (MWC), the problems of GDC 2020 have emerged over several days. It was with the game developers first Sony, Electronic Arts and Facebookwho withdrew their participation on February 21.
In one second swing followed later including Microsoft, the engine manufacturer Unity and Epic Games. At least some of the companies now want to hold their lectures and announcements online, for example as a video stream. No details are available.
The San Francisco Tourism Office had on February 25, 2020 tried with an open letterto convince companies and visitors of the security of the Game Developers Conference. Had more attention in Media like CNN however, almost simultaneously found the fact that London Mayor, the city’s mayor, had officially declared a state of emergency because of the corona virus.
Above all, it is about easier access to aid as soon as serious problems arise. However, the echo in the social networks was devastating, which probably also put pressure on the game companies not to send their employees to the GDC.
Please activate Javascript.
Or use that Golem-pur offer
and read Golem.de
- without advertisement
- with javascript turned off
- with RSS full text feed
–
