After scrapping its plans to attend PAX East in Boston later this month, Sony has now confirmed that it won't be attending GDC -- once again citing the coronavirus as the reason why. Facebook joins the company in skipping the show while Oculus has announced that its announcements will take place online.
In a statement given to GamesIndustry.biz, Sony said: "We have made the difficult decision to cancel our participation in Game Developers Conference due to increasing concerns related to COVID-19 (also known as coronavirus). We felt this was the best option as the situation related to the virus and global travel restrictions are changing daily. We are disappointed to cancel our participation, but the health and safety of our global workforce is our highest concern. We look forward to participating in GDC in the future."
It's hard to judge how much of an impact the two cancellations will have on the Japanese giant's next-gen plans. It was highly unlikely that any sort of PlayStation 5 news or updates would be doing the rounds at PAX East or GDC, so to see Sony putting the health of its workforce above all else is a welcome and promising sign.
[via gamesindustry.biz]
