Facebook and Sony were not the last companies to cancel their participation in GDC 2020. The list of notable absentees has now grown to include Kojima Productions and Electronic Arts.
Both companies cite coronavirus concerns as the reasons for dropping out.
Death Stranding
Kojima Productions has made the difficult decision to cancel our participation at the 2020 Game Developers Conference due to increasing concerns related to novel coronavirus. Although much-anticipated, unfortunately this cancellation also includes Hideo Kojima’s session on [March 19] and Eric Johnson’s session on [March 16].
Kojima Productions, via a statement on its website
Almost immediately, Electronic Arts followed suit.
The company provided this statement to GameSpot:
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.
Despite these high-profile cancellations, GDC 2020 is still happening in March.