PlayStation and Oculus won't be at GDC this year over further Coronavirus fears

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Yesterday, Sony announced that they would be canceling their plans for PAX East, due to the ongoing Coronavirus outbreak. Today, the company has announced they will be skipping yet another public event, the Game Developers Conference, due to the same concerns. Not only that, but Facebook Gaming and Oculus have also withdrawn from GDC 2020 because of the virus. PlayStation has entirely pulled out of the event, though Facebook will still make announcements and reveals during GDC, by releasing videos and online Q&A's, instead of live ones, at the event. GDC 2020 will take place from March 16 to March 20.

Facebook Gaming said:
"Out of concern for the health and safety of our employees, our dev partners, and the GDC community, Facebook will not be attending this year's Game Developer Conference due to the evolving public health risks related to COVID-19," a Facebook company spokesperson said. "We still plan to share the exciting announcements we had planned for the show through videos, online Q&As, and more, and will plan to host GDC partner meetings remotely in the coming weeks.

Sony said:
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). We felt this was the best option as the situation related to the virus and global travel restrictions are changing daily. We are disappointed to cancel our participation, but the health and safety of our global workforce is our highest concern. We look forward to participating in GDC in the future.

:arrow: Source
 

osaka35

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I mean, you don't want to be the company known for spreading this, so i suspect it's got a lot of checks in the "reasons to do this" pile, and it's not just one thing. This virus is pretty nasty, so it'll be interesting to see what other problems it'll cause.
 
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Spider_Man

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I've heard that about E3 and other consumer shows, but GDC always has useful and interesting stuff for developers. I doubt that one is going anywhere.
It will eventually, it all depends on if the digital tech guy can convince spending thousands.

Exhibitions are a soon to be dead market, it os a waste of monry because we can already find what we need to know before the event.

Id rather these people see sense and save money and put back into production.
 

diggeloid

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It will eventually, it all depends on if the digital tech guy can convince spending thousands.

Exhibitions are a soon to be dead market, it os a waste of monry because we can already find what we need to know before the event.

Id rather these people see sense and save money and put back into production.

GDC isn't an exhibition though, it's a conference for networking, attending lectures, presenting research, etc. There's some fluff like award shows, but the main draw is the conference.
 
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Pipistrele

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Not gonna lie, seeing so many people on GBATemp prioritizing vidjagame info over well-being of employees isn't a good look on tempers. Occasional xenophobic comments about Chinese people don't help the matters.
 
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Veho

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The coronavirus might be a convenient excuse to cover a lack of stuff to show, but it's true that expos and trade shows are a breeding ground for every disease out there (except STDs LOL NERD JOKE). No better way to spread disease than to cram 50,000 people into one conference room and then have them shake hands and all touch one demo unit you brought to the show. And then take the germs home to their friends and family.
 

eyeliner

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Wait a damn minute...
Is Corona Virus in the list of attendees? How the hell did that happen?

I swear, they let anyone and anything in, these days.
 

Foxi4

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Not gonna lie, seeing so many people on GBATemp prioritizing vidjagame info over well-being of employees isn't a good look on tempers. Occasional xenophobic comments about Chinese people don't help the matters.
Uhh... Nah. Sony and Oculus are corporations, from a consumer standpoint they're staffed entirely by robots and exist solely to serve their customers. There's no point in humanising the corporation, GDC is taking place in California, not in the middle of China. You know who hasn't cancelled or rescheduled? The organisers. Clearly the risk isn't as high as you're led to believe, at least at that location. While I agree with @Veho that a conference is the best spot to catch a new and exotic disease for the collection, I simultaneously doubt that this is anything other than a PR stunt along the lines of "look, we're responsible, we care".
 
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Pipistrele

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Uhh... Nah. Sony and Oculus are corporations, from a consumer standpoint they're staffed entirely by robots and exist solely to serve their customers. There's no point in humanising the corporation, GDC is taking place in California, not in the middle of China. You know who hasn't cancelled or rescheduled? The organisers. Clearly the risk isn't as high as you're led to believe, at least at that location. While I agree with @Veho that a conference is the best spot to catch a new and exotic disease for the collection, I simultaneously doubt that this is anything other than a PR stunt along the lines of "look, we're responsible, we care".
There's a point in humanizing the employees who work at corporations, because not every single one of them is some nasty executive/PR manager who's out for our money - most of them are white collar folks, assistants, backstage workers, security guards, and other kind of employees who are frankly just like you and me, only happen to work for a big company instead of smaller one. I'm not siding myself with any big corporation, and I dislike their shady practices as much as any other guy, but if someone goes into extreme of "screw every Sony/Microsoft/Nintendo worker, they should serve us", then I don't have much respect for those people either.

Same goes for situation with events being canceled. Was it a calculated move on Sony that comes from lucky timing? Probably. Should anyone berate them for going with it? Not really, because in the end result it benefits aforementioned workers, and if that means less videogames for a month or two, then so be it. Well-being of people is more important than videogames in my book.
 
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Foxi4

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There's a point in humanizing the employees who work at corporations, because not every single one of them is some nasty executive/PR manager who's out for our money - most of them are white collar folks, assistants, backstage workers, security guards, and other kind of employees who are frankly just like you and me, only happen to work for a big company instead of smaller one. I'm not siding myself with any big corporation, and I dislike their shady practices as much as any other guy, but if someone goes into extreme of "screw every Sony/Microsoft/Nintendo worker, they should serve us", then I don't have much respect for those people either.

Same goes for situation with events being canceled. Was it a calculated move on Sony that comes from lucky timing? Probably. Should anyone berate them for going with it? Not really, because in the end result it benefits aforementioned workers, and if that means less videogames for a month or two, then so be it. Well-being of people is more important than videogames in my book.
I don't see it that way at all. As a paying customer I expect the corporation, which ultimately is a collection of all the people that work under its umbrella, from top to bottom, to jump into fire if I find that amusing. I've always been a "consumer first" person, but I can understand where you're coming from. With that said, I can humanise them after work, at work I expect them to perform.
 
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