The annual Game Developers Conference scheduled to be held in San Francisco March 16 is the latest to suffer from coronavirus-related fears as both Facebook Inc. and Sony Corp. withdrew from the event today.

“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,” Facebook said in a blog post. “Due to the evolving health concerns surrounding COVID-19, Facebook’s AR/VR and Gaming teams will not be attending GDC this year.”

Although losing Oculus from the event is arguably a minor blow for organizers, Sony’s cancellation is a far bigger deal. Sony was scheduled to demonstrate its forthcoming PlayStation 5 at the event.

“We have made the difficult decision to cancel our participation in Game Developers Conference due to increasing concerns related to COVID-19,” Sony Interactive Entertainment said in a statement reported by Gamsnindustry.biz. “We felt this was the best option as the situation related to the virus and global travel restrictions are changing daily. We are disappointed to cancel our participation, but the health and safety of our global workforce is our highest concern.”

Japan has been particularly hard-hit by the virus, with 94 confirmed cases in the country along with a staggering 634 cases on the Diamond Princess cruise ship currently tied up at a dock in Yokohama. Travel restrictions are also likely going forward as well.

Israel, while not as yet banning travelers from Japan, has banned entry from several Asian countries with the real chance that other countries may follow suit. The U.S. and Australia currently have travel bans on noncitizens who have visited mainland China, and it’s conceivable that those bans could be extended to those who have visited other countries if the virus continues to spread.

GDC responded to the news by saying in a statement that “we believe that, based on the strict U.S. quarantine around coronavirus and a large number of enhanced on-site measures, we are able to execute a safe and successful event for our community.”

The annual RSA Conference scheduled for San Francisco next week also lost another attendee. AT&T Cybersecurity is the latest exhibitor and sponsor to withdraw from the event, joining International Business Machines Corp., which withdrew last week.

The spread of the virus has also claimed a number of events outright. The GSM Association’s annual Mobile World Congress in Barcelona was canceled Feb. 12 after dozens of exhibitors had canceled their plans to attend. Fortinet Inc.’s annual Accelerate 2020 conference also scheduled for Barcelona was canceled at around the same time. Facebook was next in line, canceling its Global Marketing Conference scheduled for March 9-12 in San Francisco as well.

As ZDNet noted, other companies are deciding whether to go ahead with their own events. Events potentially at risk include the Kaspersky Security Analyst Summit and the Linux Foundation’s KubeCon, CloudNativeCon and Open Source Summit China.

Photo: Official GDC/Wikimedia Commons