PlayStation, Facebook Gaming, Oculus VR to skip GDC 2020 due to coronavirus risk
The gaming companies have made the 'difficult decision' to cancel their participation in next month's event.
Coronavirus Fears See Facebook and PlayStation Cancel GDC 2020 Attendance
The annual Game Developers Conference (GDC) is three weeks away and tends to be the first major videogame event of the year, with attendees from around the world showcasing their latest projects. This year is going to be very different, however, with Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) and Facebook/Oculus having now cancelled their appearances due to the ongoing Coronavirus outbreak.
Both companies have issued statements due to concerns about the spread of COVID-19 (coronavirus). Oculus said: “We’re removing our booth footprint and advising all employees to refrain from traveling to the show.”
“We’re committed to building the future of immersive gaming alongside VR developers—and sharing that journey with the entire VR community. We still plan to share the exciting announcements we had planned for the show, but in a digital format with videos, online Q&As, and more. We’re excited to share and celebrate the accomplishments of our developer partners, and we’re happy that even more people can join in online. Stay tuned for more details!
“This was a difficult decision, but it’s the right call to make at this time. As always, we’ll have more to share in the weeks ahead.”
GamesIndustry.biz published a statement from SIE which read: “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.”
In addition to GDC 2020, SIE said last week that it wouldn’t be attending PAX East in Boston because of the coronavirus.
The cancellations mirror those for the Mobile World Congress (MWC) event which was supposed to take place next week in Barcelona, Spain but was eventually cancelled due to a significant number of high profile companies dropping out. At present, GDC 2020 is still going ahead with organisers saying: “We believe that, based on the strict U.S. quarantine around coronavirus and a large number of enhanced on-site measures, we are able to execute a safe and successful event for our community.” That’s not to say in the weeks to come more exhibitors won’t drop out forcing the event to cancel.
Obviously, what’s most important is everyone’s safety and minimising the spread of COVID-19. If cancelling a couple of tech shows helps in that effort then so be it. Announcements can still be made without packing lots of people in convention halls, HTC Vive was going to showcase yesterday’s Project Proton at MWC ’20. At present, the World Health Organisation puts the total number of worldwide Novel coronavirus (COVID-19) cases at 76,767, with 2,247 deaths recorded. Most of the cases are in China, centred around Wuhan where the outbreak occurred. So far 27 countries have confirmed cases amounting to just over 1,000.
VRFocus will continue its coverage of GDC 2020 and the implications the situation has on the XR industry.
Facebook/Oculus & Sony Are Pulling Out of GDC Over Coronavirus Concerns
Facebook and Sony today announced they won’t be attending the annual GDC conference in San Francisco next month other Coronavirus concerns. GDC has historically been a key event for both Facebook/Oculus and Sony, with major announcements and previews of what would come from each company’s VR ventures throughout the rest of the year. Facebook, at least, says it will still share its planned announcements despite not attending the show.
“Out of concern for the health and safety of our employees, our dev partners, and the GDC community, Facebook will not be attending this year’s Game Developer Conference due to the evolving public health risks related to COVID-19,” a Facebook spokesperson said. “We still plan to share the exciting announcements we had planned for the show through videos, online Q&As, and more, and will plan to host GDC partner meetings remotely in the coming weeks. We continue to collaborate with UBM, GDC’s parent company, and our partners, and thank them for their efforts.”
GamesIndustry.biz reported today that Sony made the same call:
“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,” the company told GamesIndustry.biz. “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.”
The Coronavirus, a novel respiratory virus, began in China with the first reported case on December 31st, 2019; health organizations have since designated the strain as ‘COVID-19’ for specificity. The virus has seen more than 75,000 confirmed cases and 2,100 deaths, according to the latest information from the World Health Organization. While COVID-19 has spread to 27 other countries to date, 99% of cases have been confined to China.
In years past, GDC was used by both Oculus and Sony to reveal the latest versions of new VR headsets and content. The show has also been important for Valve and its VR activities; in 2015 it was where Valve and HTC first revealed the Vive, and Valve has frequently used the event to showcase the work of VR developers with games on Steam.
This isn’t the first impact that COVID-19 has had on Facebook and Oculus. Earlier this month the company said it expects its manufacturing operations to be impacted by the outbreak, making Quest more scarce; the headset has been largely unavailable for many weeks now.
Neither Sony nor Valve have said whether COVID-19 is or could constrain the supply of their headsets. Sony’s PlayStation VR seems to have ample stock for the most part, though like Quest, Index has been sold out for weeks on end.
The post Facebook/Oculus & Sony Are Pulling Out of GDC Over Coronavirus Concerns appeared first on Road to VR.
Facebook To Talk ‘Breaking Through As VR Breaks Out’ At GDC 2020
The 2020 Game Developers Conference (GDC) is right around the corner and developer sessions are starting to surface. There isn’t anything too juicy yet, aside from this session from Facebook.
The company will host an event titled ‘State of the VR Game: Breaking Through as VR Breaks Out‘ at the show between March 16 – 20 (a time for the session itself hasn’t been announced). The event’s description reveals that a panel of experts from Facebook’s Oculus will be on-hand to deliver “a no holds barred look at where we are with VR today, including what’s working, what’s breaking through, and what will happen next.”
It’s tempting to make a meal out of the tease about ‘what will happen next’ but, given the framing for the session, we doubt this refers to any significant announcements. This is a talk for developers looking to maximize sales of their VR game, so at most you can probably expect some features Facebook is working on to enhance that.
Still, it’s a particularly noteworthy session given Facebook’s somewhat infamous curation policy for Oculus Quest, which is far more selective than that of Rift or Go. As the event’s description notes, plenty of developers are now “seeing real success” and the release of Quest is one big reason for that. But other developers have found their games rejected from the Oculus Store. This panel will hopefully give developers an insight on how to avoid that situation.
It’s not the only event Facebook has listed for GDC thus far. The company will also talk ‘The Future Of Playing Together And Where Multiplayer Is Going In VR‘. Perhaps there we might learn more about the company’s plans for its upcoming Horizon social platform?
We’ll be at GDC ourselves to run down all the latest from the show.
The post Facebook To Talk ‘Breaking Through As VR Breaks Out’ At GDC 2020 appeared first on UploadVR.
GDC 2020 Survey: Oculus VR Headsets Dominate Developer Interest
The newest survey of game developers conducted in connection with the Game Developers Conference (GDC 2020) reveals a sea change in VR developer interest.
In previous years HTC Vive dominated the survey results but Facebook’s Oculus Quest is dominating this year alongside Valve Index and Rift.
The key question on the survey — Which VR/AR platform(s) most interest you as a developer right now? (Choose all that apply) — sizes up interest among developers in making software for various VR and AR headsets. In the 2020 edition of the survey Oculus Quest dominates with 39 percent checking that option while Valve Index follows at 22 percent and Oculus Rift close behind at 21 percent. Windows Mixed Reality AR headsets like HoloLens are at 17 percent while Magic Leap One and HTC Vive tied at 16 percent.
The original Vive was hit in 2019 by the arrival of Vive Cosmos which garnered 7 percent interest (just slightly more than the now-defunct Gear VR platform at 5 percent) as well as Valve’s own Index VR headset. It is also notable separate entries on the survey were listed for Vive Pro, Vive Focus, Vive Focus Plus, and Vive Pro Eye while only one was given to Rift, which likely had the effect of grouping together all the responses for Oculus PC development interest under a single entry while dividing HTC’s between so many of its headsets.
Here are the survey results on that question in 2020 with the charts for the last several years included below:
2020
2019
2018
2017
Another notable question on the 2020 survey is more specific in asking “Which VR/AR platform(s) are you currently developing for? (Choose all that apply)” and that question narrows the gap between HTC Vive at 20 percent while Oculus Rift and Oculus Quest lead the pack at 25 percent and 24 percent, respectively.
Here’s the chart for that survey question from 2020:
You can check out the full survey for yourself by filling out the information on this page to download a copy and stay tuned for our continued coverage of GDC 2020 over the coming months.
The post GDC 2020 Survey: Oculus VR Headsets Dominate Developer Interest appeared first on UploadVR.