There is an important announcement from the organizers of the Game Developers Convention for the year 2020. Originally conceived to take place in the month of March, Game Developers Convention 2020 Has Been Postponed Until Summer. Although they have not released a set date for the event yet, organizers are still anticipating if the summers will be the best time for the event to take place.
Officially, the GDC team has not put out a reason for this postponement. They have only announced in media that the event will not be taking place anytime before the summer months and also extended their gratitude for all those who are eagerly waiting for the event. They also expressed their disappointment with this shift in the event date for GDC as they have worked relentlessly and for long hours with the advisory board, exhibitors, keynote speakers, sponsors, and event partners for about a year in preparation for the yearly event.
Since the team has not released any statement regarding the reason for the postponement, many have assumed that the reason for the delay could be due to the ongoing global health crisis owing to Coronavirus that has led to the obstruction of the event and travels overseas. However, many people are also of the opinion that the postponement could not have been because of the virus breakout since it is supposed to be organized in North America, in the baby city of San Francisco, California which still remains vaguely safe from the virus breach. However, uncertainties led many sponsors and companies to recall their names from participating in the event. One of the companies that recently recalled their name from the GDC event was Blizzard Entertainment announcing their departure only yesterday saying that they are concerned about the untimely outbreak of the virus and want to keep a distance to safeguard their staff.
A follow-up tweet posted by the GDC 2020 committee also answered a few key questions. One of the most repeated ones was the refund process for hotel bookings that were done through the official portal of GDC. They assured their customers that there will not be any payment penalties for those who have already booked with further information in line to be released early in the coming week. All those who have purchased their conference pass already will be sent emails regarding their registration status redirecting them to claiming for a refund without being charged a penny.
Among such disappointing news, one thing that is accounting for compensation to a certain extent is that all those keynote speakers who were set to present their talks at the event will have a version available for everyone to watch for free online. These speakers will record their respective oratories in video format and share them with the mass through GDC’s official YouTube channel or through the free blocks within the GDC portal. Although settling for videos is disheartening, it is still good news that their preparations will have an outlet to reach the crowd.
The Game Developers Choice Awards and Independent Games Festival will be streamed via Twitch during the week that the event was originally supposed to take place. Through this backup plan, GDC only hopes to keep the community strong by featuring and celebrating lesser-known games.
