Blizzard has now bowed out of GDC 2020 over coronavirus fears

At this point, it might be easier to just write a post on the companies that are going to attend this year’s Game Developer Conference in San Francisco, as most of the bigs have all backed out. The latest? Blizzard, which has cited coronavirus concerns as its motive.

“Blizzard will no longer attend this year’s @Official_GDC due to growing concerns related to COVID-19. The health and well-being of our teams is our highest priority,” the studio tweeted. “The conference is and has always been an important event for our developers, so we look forward to participating in the future.”

Earlier today, we reported on CCP Games’ decision to cancel its April EVE Fanfest in Iceland. As of yesterday, however, GDC showrunners maintained that the March event would still continue on, in spite of the exit of companies including Amazon, Epic Games, Facebook, and Microsoft.

Blizzard will no longer attend this year’s @Official_GDC due to growing concerns related to COVID-19. The health and well-being of our teams is our highest priority.

— Blizzard Entertainment (@Blizzard_Ent) February 28, 2020

More on the impact of the virus on gaming:

• Oct 7: PSA: Overwatch 2 is clearancing out old Overwatch League skins, get ’em while you can

• Jul 30: For Science: EVE Online ramps up cancer-fighting Project Discovery with new minigames and rewards

• Jul 1: UK employment tribunal says Star Citizen studio discriminated against autistic employee

• Apr 3: For Science: EVE Online’s Project Discovery initiative opens signups for mobile testing

• Feb 19: Wisdom of Nym: How long until Final Fantasy XIV’s next expansion based on patch 6.57?

• Dec 22: Guild Wars 2’s ArenaNet is working on expansions for both 2024 and 2025 already

• Oct 13: WoW Factor: No-selling BlizzCon

• Sep 18: Ubisoft Montreal employees accuse studio of lying about work-from-home policies as an RTO mandate begins

• Aug 9: Following Final Fantasy XIV Fanfest COVID outbreak, one fan admits guilt – in a comic

• These are just our last few articles; click here for the full roundup of our coronavirus coverage back to January

MOP's been covering the COVID-19 pandemic's impact on online gaming since January 2020, and we're still going from behind our own quarantines, both to keep up with the news and be a source of entertainment and comfort too. Stay abreast of the big MMO impacts with us, but please be safe and care for your communities above all else.