Much like the rest of the world, the gaming industry is on the edge over Coronavirus concerns and the ever-growing list of companies to cancel participation at this year's Game Developers Conference are Activision and Gearbox.
So, the companies behind Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Borderlands 3, which happen to be one of the hottest video game IPs at the moment, are backing out of GDC 2020.
As you'd expect, both are prioritising the wellbeing of their employees over anything, be it marketing opportunities, corporate exposure or academic interests of their employees.
While it's easy to disregard this as a "duh" move, we still want to stress that this is exemplary behaviour and we mean it with all our hearts.
"The health and well-being of our teams is our highest priority, and due to growing concerns related to COVID-19, Activision is asking employees not to attend this year’s Game Developers Conference as we continue to monitor the situation.
This was not an easy decision to make, as the conference is and has always been an important event for our developers. We look forward to participating in the future", Activision tweeted.
Gearbox wrote, "Gearbox today notified GDC organizers that our team will not attend GDC or be able to give their scheduled presentations. Our employees' health and wellness is our primary concern.
In the development of Borderlands 3, we broke new ground and, in keeping with the spirit and mission of GDC, some of our developers still want to share that innovation and we will support that through digital presentations. More details will be released on that soon."
2K Games
In related news, Borderlands 3 dev confirmed the release date of Guns, Love and Tentacles: The Marriage of Wainwright & Hammerlock for 26 March 2020. If there's any silver lining to be found, it's that March promises to be a great month for gaming regardless of what happens with GDC 2020.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is a reboot of the original series
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