Sony And Facebook Announces To Ditch GDC 2020 Over Coronavirus Concerns

Coronavirus outbreak in China has already because a reason for the cancellation of MWC 2020, now it seems that the GDC 2020 (Game Developers Conference) is also on stake. The event is scheduled for March 16 in San Francisco and ahead of the event Sony and Face has announced that they will not be the part of the event citing concerns over coronavirus. Sony has also announced that it's not going to attend PAX East which is scheduled for February 27.

Meanwhile, Facebook will announce the Oculus business via online video and the company has also confirmed that it will remove the booth from the show floor.

"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," reads the Facebook blog post.

"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)," Sony told Gamesindustry.biz. According to the statement, Sony is very disappointed to cancel the participation, but the safety of their employees' always comes first.

Meanwhile, the GDC team has also released a statement stating that the health and safety will be the priority of the event and proper safety measures will be taken care during the event. The team claimed that Health for the City of San Francisco and the State of California will be available during the event for the safety measures.

The reports suggest that Sony was gearing up to showcase their highly anticipated game - The Last of Us Part II at PAX East but unfortunately is not going to happen.

Earlier it was reported that the company will not take part in E3 2020 (Electronic Entertainment Expo). This might be disappointing for fans who were eagerly waiting for form the upcoming PlayStation 5.