Current Events > Coronavirus Leads EA, CD Projekt Red, Square Enix, Capcom To Abandon GDC, PAX

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://www.kotaku.com.au/2020/02/coronavirus-leads-ea-cd-projekt-red-square-enix-capcom-to-abandon-gdc-pax-east/

The coronavirus hits just keep on coming. After leading to the withdrawal of Sony and Facebook from GDC, concerns over the outbreak has resulted in four more high profile withdrawals, with EA telling their staff not to attend the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco next month, and three major publishers abandoning PAX East.

News about both companies made the rounds overnight and early Wednesday morning Australian time, starting with EA. Alex Sherer, a specialist in ad product development at EA, posted last night that EA management had advised "all EA employees ... not to travel to San Francisco for the conference".

The decision was only made known to staff yesterday. In a statement to GamesIndustry, EA confirmed the emergence of new cases prompted the decision. "Having closely followed the global situation with coronavirus and with the recent escalation of cases in new regions, we have decided to take additional steps to protect the wellbeing of our employees including the restriction of all non-essential travel," EA said.

CD Projekt Red's call to cancel their PAX East appearance, however, will have the greatest impact. The show starts Friday Australian time in Boston, and their decision will be tough for any fans excited for fresh Cyberpunk 2077 content. It's not just CDR though: Capcom cancelled a Monster Hunter meet and greet event during the convention, while Square Enix cancelled a Final Fantasy 14 panel, fan gathering and developer signing sessions because of COVID-19 fears.

Gonna be a few months (or a year?) of getting info and news from YouTube and blogs I think.

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Sony: I was bailing before bailing became cool.
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We love fear mongering

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Its the responsible thing to do, anything else would be foolish.

Lets see if that mayor or whoever cries some more

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The one year I buy PAX tickets and everyone is leaving wtf.

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I didn't know the entire world was being killed by the coronavirus

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PUBG Corp is also out, if anyone cares about them.

The expo floor is gonna look weird tomorrow.

EDIT: I've been putting stuff to see in the PAX East app and one thing I noticed is that there's a PlatinumGames panel that's listed on the website, but not in the app. Could just be an oversight, but I'm apprehensive. I legit want to see that panel.

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Still bizarre that people arent taking this virus seriously, like its pure delusion

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hockeybub89 posted...

I didn't know the entire world was being killed by the coronavirus

it's actually already killed our world and is now killing the moon

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Irony posted...

We love fear mongering

It's smart though, packed places such as that are a breeding ground for viruses. I have caught something at a comic convention before. Just need a couple sick people to pass it on to more people.

Not enough to scare me away from C2E2 this weekend I just hope some of the people I want to meet don't cancel.

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Awesome posted...

Still bizarre that people arent taking this virus seriously, like its pure delusion

It should be treated as a serious threat but we also shouldn't panic and act like it's the end of the world as we know it. We can protect ourselves and go on with our normal lives.

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In this day and age with Internet Press Releases, why have these expensive meetings anyways.

Save $$$ and just have a Press Release online.

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Microsoft and Epic have also dropped out of GDC.

GDC will probably be cancelled.

Microsoft will be doing their presentations online instead which is neat.

https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/games/blog/gdc-and-the-wellbeing-of-our-teams-community

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Zack_Attackv1 posted...

Sony: I was bailing before bailing became cool.

Nintendo: We told you not to copy it exactly

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It's just the flu bro, stop being rascist.

I bet like these companies just didn't want to go in the first place and are just using this as an excuse to cancel

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@Error1355

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Tyranthraxus posted...

I bet like these companies just didn't want to go in the first place and are just using this as an excuse to cancel

If they didn't want to go they probably just wouldn't.

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Darmik posted...

If they didn't want to go they probably just wouldn't.

Excuse me but https://local.theonion.com/man-spends-whole-day-dreading-fun-activity-he-signed-up-1819579571

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We must eliminate this virus, it's targeting our video games!!!

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Tyranthraxus posted...

I bet like these companies just didn't want to go in the first place and are just using this as an excuse to cancel

Yeah nobody was excited for Cyberpunk
/s

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GDC is about to be cancelled
E3 will probably be heavily impacted
Next gen consoles might be supply constrained or delayed

Coronavirus is attacking gamers. Gamers.


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Darmik posted...

GDC is about to be cancelled
E3 will probably be heavily impacted
Next gen consoles might be supply constrained or delayed

Coronavirus is attacking gamers. Gamers.

Time to rise up.

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These companies just dont want to go. Its probably more cheap to do "directs" on youtube, than to set up a big show at a convention. Its not the 90s anymore. Its much easier to reach an audience without putting on a big event.

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SH_expert44 posted...

These companies just dont want to go. Its probably more cheap to do "directs" on youtube, than to set up a big show at a convention. Its not the 90s anymore. Its much easier to reach an audience without putting on a big event.

Makes you wonder why spend all this $$$ when we have "The Internets" available and just schedule a conference and let people know ahead of time via email when Internet Direct conference will begin.

Saves you ALOT of budget and worker travel time.

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SH_expert44 posted...

These companies just dont want to go. Its probably more cheap to do "directs" on youtube, than to set up a big show at a convention. Its not the 90s anymore. Its much easier to reach an audience without putting on a big event.

GDC isn't really about that. They're networking with other people in the industry there and giving each other help with development.

These expos have developers and PR on the ground level in a way they can't online. They'll stick around. Basically any industry still use big conventions to connect to people and to network.

It's not really the same thing as an E3 presentation.

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SH_expert44 posted...

These companies just dont want to go. Its probably more cheap to do "directs" on youtube, than to set up a big show at a convention. Its not the 90s anymore. Its much easier to reach an audience without putting on a big event.

GDC is a professional event consisting mostly of seminars and employment networking. This is the place you go to get people to work on a PS5 game before you release the PS5 and convince other people why they should support Proton.

Not going to it essentially means your game development business is stagnating which makes shareholders nervous. But if you can blame not going to it on something unrelated no big deal.

Not going to E3 doesn't really mean anything because that's where you go to announce completed / in progress products. Not business and employment opportunities and emerging technologies.

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Tyranthraxus posted...

Not going to E3 doesn't really mean anything because that's where you go to announce completed / in progress products. Not business and employment opportunities and emerging technologies.

Eh I'm sure a lot of stuff happens down on the showfloor and meeting rooms that we don't know about. Pretty much everyone is there after all. Hell the ESA's insistence on making it a fan event is probably why these companies are backing out since that makes that aspect of it more difficult.

But yeah GDC is a lot more focused on it. Only place a developer from an indie studio can watch Nintendo do a presentation on how they made Breath of the Wild.

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