Microsoft/Epic/Unity announced to withdrawal from the GDC 2020

The Mobile World Congress 2020, which was previously planned to be held in Barcelona, ​​Spain, was canceled due to a pneumonia outbreak caused by a new coronavirus.

Based on public health and safety considerations, it is currently not suitable for more intensive exhibitions, so it is certainly not just the Mobile World Congress that is affected by the epidemic.

For example, this week the social network giant Facebook announced the cancellation of the Facebook F8 Developers Summit. Of course, the reason for the cancellation is also due to health and safety considerations.

The forthcoming GDC 2020 Game Developers Conference will also be affected. Although it has not been completely canceled, some exhibitors have announced their withdrawal.

Microsoft just announced in a blog that the company is withdrawing from this year’s Game Developers Conference. Microsoft said it was a very difficult decision but there was no way around it.

Microsoft believes that the health and safety of players, developers, and employees around the world is the most important thing. At the same time, Microsoft will host an online conference from March 16 to March 18, 2020, which will cover most of the content prepared by Microsoft to ensure that players can have fun.

Unreal Engine developer and well-known game developer, Epic also announced similar news on Twitter. EPIC said it was concerned about the uncertainty of health issues and therefore could not send employees to participate.

Unity also announced similar news on its official blog, saying the company may have health risks due to the complex state of the new coronavirus.

Unity also attaches great importance to the health of its employees, so it has decided not to send any employees to participate in the exhibition, which is why the company’s booth at the summit will be completely canceled.