Electronic Arts and Kojima Productions stay away from GDC due to coronavirus

After Sony and Oculus, Hideo Kojima and Electronic Arts have also announced that they will have little or no attendance at the Game Developers Conference, in mid-March in San Francisco. The reason is fear of further spread of the coronavirus.

EA told PC Gamer that it is closely monitoring the situation surrounding the virus and is canceling all non-essential travel for the health of its employees. Official participation in GDC will thus be canceled and participation in other events will be ‘limited’. In a posting on the Kojima Productions website, the new Japanese game studio says it is making the same decision and that Hideo Kojima’s presentation on Death Stranding is not going ahead.

These are not the first companies and gatherings to notice the effects of the coronavirus. After multiple cancellations from tech companies, the GSM Association decided to cancel the Mobile World Congress telecom fair in its entirety. PAX East also has to deal with cancellations. In addition, the virus leads to reduced production and declining turnover.