As you may already know, a number of big-name participants have been pulling out of GDC 2020. These include some big names like Microsoft, Unity, Epic Games, Amazon, Facebook, and Sony, among others. As more companies announced they would not send staff due to health concerns around the continued spreading of the coronavirus, GDC was forced to make a difficult decision. As such, they have finally decided to scrap the event that was set to happen in San Francisco from March 16-20th. However, there is a Plan B for next month, and they are planning to have another GDC event sometime later this summer.
In the meantime, the company behind the GDC 2020 event has since put out a press release, and a post on their website. They say that some of the talks that would’ve been at the event next month will instead appear on Twitch for free during the week the event was scheduled for (March 16th to 20th). These will include only those presentations whose creators contribute their talks in video format. They will also appear in the GDC YouTube channel and in the free part of the GDC Vault according to the press release. The Twitch streaming next month will also include the Independent Games Festival and Game Developers Choice Awards.
They have also put up a FAQ on the GDC website detailing the situation with the GDC 2020 event next month. For example, one says that the Independent Games Festival and Game Developers Choice Awards will be streaming on Twitch during the week the event would’ve happened “so that our community can continue to honor & celebrate its best games.”
