GDC postponed due to Coronavirus: What's next?

GDC postponed due to Coronavirus: What's next?

Another tech gathering is crossed off the calendar. Next month's Game Developer Conference has been postponed. Organizers are concerned about a coronavirus outbreak.

"After close consultation with our partners in the game development industry and community around the world, we have made the difficult decision to postpone the Game Developers Conference this March," organizers said in a note posted tonight (February 28) on the GDC website

The organizers have decided to postpone the conference until after the conference.

Organizers said they intend to reschedule the event, which brings together game makers, for later in the summer. We are working with our partners to finalize details and will share more information about our plans in the coming weeks," the statement said."

GDC is a good opportunity to see the work of game makers, especially indie game makers who often get lost in the hustle and bustle of large gaming events like E3. gdc is also a great opportunity to see the work of indie game makers, such as Google last year when it announced its Stadia gaming service and Oculus when it announced the headset Oculus Rift S.

But it is also a good opportunity to see what indie game makers are working on.

However, events like the GDC are falling by the wayside as the spread of the coronavirus has health professionals holding off on both travel and large gatherings in limited venues. Exhibitors like Sony had already pulled out of GDC 2020 before Friday's postponement.

Already this month's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona was canceled due to coronavirus concerns, and Facebook has already canceled its spring developer conference. Other events later in the spring, notably the Microsoft, Google, and Apple developer conferences, are still going ahead as planned, but if the coronavirus outbreak shows no signs of abating, questions will begin to be raised about these events as well.

Other events that could be threatened by the coronavirus include SXSW, scheduled for March in Austin. Apple will also reportedly hold a press event at the end of the month to announce the iPhone SE 2, but it is unclear if that will still take place if coronavirus concerns persist.

A coronavirus tracking site set up by Johns Hopkins has identified over 85,000 cases of coronavirus infection worldwide, with over 2,900 deaths. The largest infections have been reported in China, South Korea, and Italy, but cases are beginning to appear in the U.S. The Associated Press reports that a second case of infection by the new coronavirus has been confirmed in California.

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