Oculus drops out of GDC 2020 and Facebook cancels F8's face to face event due to health concerns

[kojack]

https://developer.oculus.com/blog/an-important-update-on-gdc/

They've removed their booth and are advising staff to not attend.

GDC2020 is starting on March 16, about 3 and a bit weeks from now.

VR headsets shared by many people at a convention are probably a pretty good way of spreading things like COVID-19.

[Anonymous]

If there's a martial arts VR game there you might end up with people getting Kung Flu whilst playing Kung Fu in VR.

I'll just get my coat. 😄

[bigmike20vt]

Dissapointing but makes perfect sense. IF they had anything interesting to announce they could still release a video announcement of what ever it was which is what they seem to be doing

Hell what better way to promote a VR platform than to have a live VR conference we could all join? 

[kojack]

As I've seen pointed out, the timing of this is pretty bad. Oculus and Sony announce on the 20th or 21st (you know, time zones and such, not sure the exact day) that they are pulling out. But GDC won't give refunds for tickets after the 19th.

10 chinese exhibitors won't be able to make it and around 2% of attendees are from china and have therefore been blocked from travel.

Sony have also dropped out of PAX East (next week).

[hoppingbunny123]

gdc is in San Francisco this year. why is the oculus not going to San Francisco? Its not like gdc is held in wuhan in china, its San Francisco, i wonder why? what aren't they telling us about San Francisco?

https://youtu.be/5WFwhSuzkMw

[kojack]

As I already said in the first post: "VR headsets shared by many people at a convention are probably a pretty good way of spreading things like COVID-19."

Covid-19 is not just in china. There's at least 34 cases in america right now. Japan has 132 cases, South Korea has 433.

A large convention with people travelling from all over the world is the perfect way to spread things like this.

GDC and PAX are already well known for spreading the flu. Add in something far more serious like this and conventions are a risk.

[RuneSR2]

Wasn't it rumored that Nvidia might announce Ampere at GDC? If that was planned and now may not happen - that would be truly terrible. Not sure Oculus nor Sony will reveal much new stuff, but Nvidia could... 

[kojack]

Nvidia is still at GDC.

[Anonymous]

We also have Facebook F8 due to start in May too. Perhaps that's going to get cancelled as well?

Depends on how much this spreads in March and April I guess.

[RuneSR2]

kojack said:

Nvidia is still at GDC.

I'm just worried they might cancel too, we'll see. Also I wonder if the Corona situation might delay Ampere production... 

Sigh, a few months ago my Corona situation seemed only linked to avoiding this kind of overdose - knowing that an overdose could lead to serious illness including severe headache and projectile vomiting  :#