Due to the outbreak of Coronavirus (COVID-19), with elevated fears of infection and quarantine, several exhibitors including Unity, Epic Games, Microsoft and Amazon all announced that they would not be attending GDC this year. It was almost inevitable that the event itself would be cancelled or postponed, which is exactly what happened.
Details from the GDC website:
After close consultation with our partners in the game development industry and community around the world, we’ve made the difficult decision to postpone the Game Developers Conference this March.
Having spent the past year preparing for the show with our advisory boards, speakers, exhibitors, and event partners, we’re genuinely upset and disappointed not to be able to host you at this time .
We want to thank all our customers and partners for their support, open discussions and encouragement. As everyone has been reminding us, great things happen when the community comes together and connects at GDC. For this reason, we fully intend to host a GDC event later in the summer. We will be working with our partners to finalize the details and will share more information about our plans in the coming weeks.
For more information, please visit our Frequently Asked Questions page.
From the linked FAQ come important details regarding refunds:
I am a current GDC 2020 paid conference or expo registrant – now the event is not taking place in March, can I receive a refund of my pass money?
If you are a currently registered passholder, you will be receiving an email about your registration status and any next steps regarding refunds, which conference and expo attendees will be receiving in full.
What is the situation with hotels if I booked through the GDC hotel website/room blocks?
Individuals who have made hotel reservations inside the GDC room block will not have to pay penalties or fees associated with their reservations. More information will be available early next week on next steps.
As several smaller developers are going to be financially impacted, gamedev.world are organizing a fund raising and relief effort for impacted developers. You can learn more about the postponement in the video below.