This year's Game Developers Conference (GDC) has been indefinitely postponed because of the Coronavirus outbreak, event organizers announced yesterday, and the Open Compute Project (OCP) Global Summit was canceled for the same reason.
GDC 2020's postponement was expected: Sony, Microsoft, Epic Games, Unity and Electronic Arts pulled out of the conference last week. Other companies may have followed suit, and at that point, we doubt many attendees would've shown up.
Event organizers said in an FAQ that GDC 2020 pass holders will be refunded, and that "individuals who have made hotel reservations inside the GDC room block will not have to pay penalties or fees associated with their reservations," either.
The organizers also said that GDC 2020 presenters will be able to stream their presentations, if they so choose, and that the Independent Games Festival and Game Developers Choice Awards will be streamed on Twitch from March 16-20.
The Open Compute Project Foundation will take a similar approach with the OCP Global Summit. It will still decide the winner for the Future Technologies Symposium, the foundation said, and that person will receive their $10,000 prize as planned.
Other plans seem less clear-cut. The foundation said in its announcement:
"A lot of work has been done in preparation for this event, including important product rollouts, company announcements, and innovations from our member companies. We would like to work with you on following through with those announcements to the Community, and the industry at large, over the next week.
"We will also be creating a plan to convert all the amazing content whereby our sponsors and exhibitors can still share their capabilities and innovations with key constituencies in order to further the innovations among our Community. More details to come, but we will try to create this event to take place as soon as possible."
GDC 2020 and the OCP Global Summit weren't the only events canceled because of the Coronavirus outbreak. Mobile World Congress was canceled, too, and Facebook said its F8 developer conference will be taking place online instead of in San Jose.
