EA Backs Out of GDC 2020 Over Coronavirus, Says It Will Limit Attendance to Other Events

Another major company has backed out of this year's Game Developers Conference. Electronic Arts confirmed to USgamer today that it will be cancelling its official participation in GDC 2020.

A LinkedIn post from an EA developer said that the publisher would be "limiting" its presence at GDC, canceling participation and advising all employees to not travel to San Francisco for the conference. Electronic Arts sent USgamer the following statement:

"Having closely 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 wellbeing of our employees including the restriction of all non-essential travel. 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."

EA is one of several companies to back out of attending international events due to growing concern over the novel coronavirus. Sony and Facebook have withdrawn from the event, as well as Kojima Productions.

Sony also cancelled its PAX East presence, and other companies like Square Enix have similarly scaled back plans for the conference in Boston. Capcom will also be scaling back its PAX East presence.

The coronavirus has delayed a number of events and impacted both hardware and development of games as the situation continues to grow. Several esports matches, like Overwatch League games set to take place in South Korea, have been canceled.