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Organizers of the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco next month think they can still run a safe and successful event.
Photograph by Josh Edelson/AFP via Getty Images
As the coronavirus outbreak slammed global markets, videogame companies around the world grappled with safety precautions surrounding a handful of events and conventions.
Game developers—eager to show off projects currently in development—pulled back on planned appearances at big-time gaming conventions. At least one game release has been pushed back due to office closures related to the outbreak. Event cancellations also have affected the burgeoning world of competitive gaming—where China and South Korea are big-time markets.
The virus isn’t necessarily bad news for videogame stocks. Though there could be hits to gaming companies’ supply chains, gaming firms in China have already seen a notable spike in active users, something U.S. firms could see, too, if schools and offices close here.
Sony
(ticker: 6758.Japan), which plans to launch its PlayStation 5 console this holiday season and has a handful of major game releases coming soon, canceled its participation in both this weekend’s PAX East fan convention in Boston and the Game Developers Conference, or GDC, in mid-March in San Francisco. These kinds of conferences have historically been used to generate buzz and media coverage surrounding coming products.
A Sony representative referred to its statement published in gamesindustry.biz.
“We felt this was the best option as the situation related to the virus and global travel restrictions are changing daily,” the company said. “We are disappointed to cancel our participation, but the health and safety of our global workforce is our highest concern.”
An
Electronic Arts
(EA) spokesperson told Barron’s it canceled its official participation in GDC and limited attendance to other events as a result of the coronavirus outbreak.
“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,” the company said.
Facebook’s
(FB) Oculus virtual reality subsidiary also pulled out of GDC. The company advised all employees to refrain from travel.
“GDC is always a highlight of our gaming event lineup, however the health of our employees and the wider games community comes before anything else,” the company said. “Due to the evolving health concerns surrounding COVID-19, Facebook’s AR/VR and Gaming teams will not be attending GDC this year.”
Other companies that said they won’t attend GDC include
Microsoft
(MSFT), Unity, and Fortnite publisher Epic Games—the latter of which is partly owned by
Tencent Holdings
(0700.Hong Kong). All three cited coronavirus as a concern.
The team running GDC believes it can still run a safe and successful event, noting the departments of health at the state and city level support the convening of public events.
Take-Two Interactive Software
‘s (TTWO) Private Division subsidiary said earlier this month that it needed to delay the release of its Outer Worlds release for the Nintendo Switch. Private Division said on Twitter that the team porting the title to the Switch had been affected by coronavirus-related office closures. The company did attend PAX East.
Both
Activision Blizzard
and Tencent were forced to rearrange their global esports schedules. Activision’s Overwatch League has 20 teams representing 19 cities, including four Chinese teams and one based in Seoul, South Korea. The league has canceled a handful of in-person events planned for China, and though there were hopes to reschedule the matches in South Korea instead, all events in South Korea through March 22 have since been canceled.
Tencent’s Riot Games subsidiary has regional leagues around the world for its League of Legends videogame. Its China-based League of Legends Pro League was meant to begin its second week after a break for the Lunar New Year. Instead, matches have been postponed until the league “can ensure the safety and health of our players and fans.”
Riot also has yet to share location and timing details for its Mid-Season Invitational event. John Needham, Riot Games’ global head of esports, said the coronavirus outbreak led the company to adjust its plans and delay an announcement. MSI is Riot’s second-biggest tournament, held annually in early-to-mid May.
Modern Time Group’s
(MTG.B) ESL subsidiary will host its Intel Extreme Masters Katowice esports event in an empty arena. The company was informed Thursday afternoon—just before the event—that provincial government officials in Poland would revoke its mass-event license. An ESL representative said the decision was related to the coronavirus.
Write to Connor Smith at connor.smith@barrons.com
