Electronic Arts is the latest company to pull their attendance at a major gaming conference, this time the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco next month. This is due to fears over the spread of the coronavirus. This follows news that Sony, Facebook and Kojima Productions will also no longer attend the annual conference in San Francisco due to the same concerns.
"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," said the publisher (via Gamesindustry.biz)
"As a result we are also cancelling our official participation at GDC and limiting attendance to other events. We are continuing to monitor the situation and will adjust guidelines to our employees as we feel is appropriate."
Electronic Arts becomes the latest company to pull from the conference, following Sony, Facebook and Kojima Productions earlier. Additionally, multiple companies have pulled their participation from this weekend's Penny Arcade Expo over the same fears that exposure at these event could spread the virus and expose their employees to unnecessary risk. The effect of this is far reaching, with even the Mayor of Boston urging Sony to reconsider their stance and come back to PAX East, claiming the coronavirus risk is "extremely low."
