With the coronavirus spreading further and further around the world, GDC has seen a number of massive companies drop out of its annual conference due to concerns that the virus may spread. Kojima Productions was the most recent name to pull out of the yearly event due to concerns about the illness, with PlayStation also opting to play it safe and not attend either. Now, it appears another notable name originally set to appear at the show has decided to cancel due to coronavirus concerns.
The company in question is none other than EA, who has elected to remain distant from the showcase in hopes of keeping its employees out of contact with the illness. Announced in a statement sent to GameSpot, the major video game company stated: "Having 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 well-being of our employees including the restriction of all non-essential travel."
The statement continues, with EA claiming: "as a result we are also cancelling our official participation at GDC and limiting attendance to other events. We are continuing to monitor the situation and will adjust guidelines to our employees as we feel is appropriate." As is evident with a number of other companies, EA clearly feels as though journeying to GDC - a conference attended by hundreds of video game enthusiasts from all over the world - is a significant health risk to its employees while the virus is spreading so quickly. While it's no doubt disappointing for the fans looking forward to hearing from the major video game publisher, it's clearly a respectful move that shows EA has their employees' best interests at heart.
With so many last-minute cancellations, GDC is no doubt going to feel the absence left by EA, Kojima Productions, and PlayStation. However, there's seemingly still a lot of exciting speakers poised to feature during the conference, including some big names working on Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Halo: Infinite.
Regardless, the coronavirus has seemingly been laying waste to a lot of big upcoming video game events. Not only has it recently canceled a set of Overwatch league matches in South Korea, but it has also caused a number of Square Enix's developers to skip PAX East and could allegedly lead to the delay of both the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X. Hopefully, fans will get to hear from EA in some other capacity at an event in the near future.
Source: GameSpot