新冠肺炎疫情蔓延全球，遠至美國都有確疹者出現，全球多個大型展覽和國際會議都受影響，下月 16 日在美國加州三藩市舉行的 GDC 2020 遊戲開發者大會自然也不例外。繼上周 Facebook 、 Oculus 、 Sony 和 Kojima Productions 都宣布退出之後， Microsoft 、 Unity 和 Epic Games 剛剛都宣布退出大會，而 Electronic Arts （ EA ）亦透過傳媒表示會退出 GDC 。
After a close review of guidance by global health authorities and out of an abundance of caution, we've made a difficult decision to withdraw from participating at Game Developers Conference 2020 in San Francisco: https://t.co/PD86eZ6FIN
— Microsoft Game Stack (@MSFTGameStack) February 27, 2020
We’ve made the tough decision to cancel our on-the-ground activity at GDC 2020, due to current conditions with COVID-19. The health and safety of our employees, partners and friends is our top priority. More info to come on what we’ll be sharing online. https://t.co/xkujzb4v5c
— Unity (@unity3d) February 27, 2020
Here at Epic we were excited about participating in GDC 2020. Regrettably, uncertainty around health concerns has made it unviable to send our employees, and so we have made the difficult decision to withdraw attendance.
Stay tuned for Epic news and more through other channels.
— Unreal Engine 5 #UE5 (@UnrealEngine) February 27, 2020
較早前小島秀夫的 Kojima Productions 公布除了公司取消參展之外，連小島秀夫預定 3 月 19 日的演講和該製作室旗下的 AI 程式師 Eric Johnson 於 3 月 16 日舉行的演講都會取消。
Microsoft 方面，原定於 GDC 舉行的開發講座將會搬到 Microsoft 遊戲開發者網站以串流方式舉行。
由於今年兩大家用遊戲機都會推出新機，本來預計 Microsoft 和 Sony 都會藉機披露更多有關新主機的情報來拉攏遊戲製作人，不過現在不單兩大主機，連兩大遊戲引擎 Unity 和 Unreal Engine 都退出大會，令 GDC 失色不少。不過到撰稿的時候， GDC 方面仍沒有公布會取消大會。