Sony, Facebook Skipping GDC 2020 Over Coronavirus Concerns

Sony and Facebook have decided to skip this year's Game Developers Conference (GDC) scheduled for March 16 in San Francisco. Both companies have cited coronavirus concerns as their reason for not attending the conference. This comes a day after Sony said it won't be attending PAX East that is scheduled for February 27. Facebook, on the other hand, will still make announcements for its Oculus business via ‘video, online Q&As and more.' In a statement, Facebook also shared that it will remove its booth from the show floor.

Facebook released a statement via its blog where it said, “GDC is always a highlight of our gaming event lineup, however the health of our employees and the wider games community comes before anything else. Due to the evolving health concerns surrounding COVID-19, Facebook's AR/VR and Gaming teams will not be attending GDC this year.” It also states that Facebook plans on hosting GDC partner meetings remotely.

Sony also released a statement to Gamesindustry.biz that reads, “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).” Stating that they were disappointed to cancel their participation, but were forced to do so because the safety of their employees is paramount.

The GDC team has also released a statement in regards to the health and safety measures they will be taking during the event. They shared that the Department of Health for City of San Francisco as well as the State of California will be lending their support.

Sony was planning on showing off its highly anticipated game, The Last of Us Part II at PAX East. We previously reported that Sony will not participate in Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) 2020 either that will make this their second missed E3 in a row. Fans looking forward to new announcements from Sony, especially in regards to their upcoming PlayStation 5, will be quite disappointed.