Kojima Productions will no longer be making an appearance at the 2020 Game Developers Conference (GDC) over concerns related to COVID-19, also known as coronavirus.
The news was broken in a short but concise post on the official Kojima Productions website. The post also confirms that the studio’s withdrawal does also mean that the sessions held by Hideo Kojima and Eric Johnson are both cancelled.
You can read the announcement regarding Kojima Productions and GDC in full below.
Kojima Productions has made the difficult decision to cancel our participation at the 2020 Game Developers Conference due to increasing concerns related to novel coronavirus.
Although much-anticipated, unfortunately this cancellation also includes Hideo Kojima’s session on the 19th and Eric Johnson’s session on the 16th.
In related news, both PlayStation and Facebook Gaming also recently announced that they will also not be attending GDC over concerns regarding the coronavirus outbreak. Both companies cited the health and safety of their employees as a priority.
PlayStation also won’t be making an appearance at PAX East, which is set to run from February 27th until March 1st.
GDC 2020 will take place between March 16th and 20th, 2020, in San Francisco, California.
If you have concerns regarding COVID-19, you can visit the World Health Organisation website to find answers and tips on how to keep yourself safe from the virus. Maintaining good hygiene practices, such as washing your hands regularly and covering your mouth when you cough and sneeze, can help to prevent the spread of most viruses.
At the time of publishing, there have been 79,331 cases of COVID-19 confirmed globally, with 2,595 deaths confirmed in China and 23 deaths outside of China.