Sony skips GDC 2020, a move that could impact PlayStation 5 plans

Coronavirus scare prompts Sony to skip GDC 2020 and miss a valuable opportunity to court developers for its next-gen PlayStation 5 platform.

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Sony has confirmed it won't be at this year's annual Game Developers Conference to protect employees from potential coronavirus exposure. The news comes days after Sony decided to likewise skip PAX East. But missing GDC is a much bigger deal, and could have a more significant impact on Sony's next-gen plans.

GDC is a closed developer-centric event where the biggest names in gaming like Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo come together to showcase new tech, talk about platform features, and overall try to inspire developers to make games for their systems.

Sony's absence could sever a link to the third-party PlayStation community during the critical pre-PS5 phase when devs typically ramp up their projects. These events are important and often expose key technical data that's essential for game devs, while also introducing new hardware, techniques, and overall system capabilities to games-makers.

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At the same time, it's likely that anyone who's interested in making a PS5 game already has a devkit. Still, though, GDC represents a big opportunity to win other studios over to the new platform--especially considering the PS5 is so easy to develop games for.

"We have made the difficult decision to cancel our participation in Game Developers Conference due to increasing concerns related to COVID-19 (also known as coronavirus). 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. We look forward to participating in GDC in the future," Sony told GamesIndustry.biz.

China's growing coronavirus health risk is disrupting Sony's plans (and the plans of tech titans across the globe), which could impact the PlayStation 5 in certain ways.

While the virus has yet to stall component manufacturing for the system, the worldwide infection is disrupting planning phases by interrupting communication lines between Sony and would-be developers.

Ultimately, it's possible the coronavirus could delay the next-generation PlayStation 5 in 2021.

This will be the third major show Sony has missed in as many months (first with the now-cancelled Taipei Games Show, secondly with PAX East, and now with GDC 2020), and the fourth industry event it will miss this year in total (the fourth being E3 2020).

The console will release in Holiday 2020, and it may cost $499.

Check below for more info on everything we know about the PlayStation 5 so far:

PlayStation 5 specs and details:

• Custom SoC with second-gen Navi GPU, Zen 2 CPU
• 8-Core, 16-thread Zen 2 CPU at 3.2GHz
• Navi GPU at 2.0GHz with 36 Compute Units
• Navi, Zen SoC uses new AMD RDNA 2.0 architecture
• Ultra-fast SSD
• Support for 4K 120 Hz TVs
• Ray-tracing enabled
• 8K output support (for gaming)
• Plays all PS4 games
• Separate games that ship on BD-XL Blu-ray discs
• New controller with extensive haptic and tactile feedback

PlayStation 5 Coverage:

• PlayStation 5 could use Samsung's 980 QVO SSDs
• PlayStation 5 is beating Xbox Series X in dev kit form right now
• Hardly any devs are making next-gen PS5, Xbox Series X games
• Sony working on new horror IP for PlayStation 5
• PlayStation 5 devkit UI possibly leaked
• Leaked PlayStation 5 concepts show weird X-shaped case
• Sony's first-party PS4 exclusives are coming to PC
• PlayStation 5's new DualShock 5 may be usable on PS4
• Sony skips E3 2020, has two major events planned for February
• Next-gen console exclusives will be few and far between through 2021
• PlayStation 5's biggest features have yet to be announced, Sony says
• PS4 has sold over 1 billion games and 106 million consoles
• PlayStation 5 backward compatibility should support every PS4 game
• Sony reveals the PlayStation 5...logo
• New trapezoidal PS5 render is an expensive accident waiting to happen
• A $399 PlayStation 5 will conquer next-gen
• PlayStation 5 to outsell Xbox Series X in 2020, analyst predicts
• PS5 may only enhance PS4 games, legacy PS1, PS2 and PS3 games unlikely
• PlayStation 5 prototype dev kit console gets V-shaped clean
• Sony: The future is coming at CES 2020
• PlayStation 5 GPU: 9.2 TFLOPs with 36 custom Navi compute units
• PlayStation 5 GPU emulates PS4, PS4 Pro with special modes
• PS5, Xbox Series X SSD may use software-defined flash to boost speeds
• PS5's SSD is 'exceptionally powerful,' may beat Xbox Series X speeds
• DualShock 5 renders show new trigger design, USB-C, ergonomic shell
• PlayStation 5 to support 8K gaming, Sony confirms
• New PlayStation 5 renders show off radical different design, again
• Leaked PlayStation 5 ad prices console at $1,000, is totally fake
• Sony seeks a new Head of Strategy for Worldwide Studios
• Leaked PlayStation 5 devkit photos show new DualShock controller
• PS5, Xbox Scarlett SSD may use Optane-like ReRAM to supercharge speeds
• NVIDIA G-Sync monitors to improve PlayStation 5 and Xbox Scarlett
• PlayStation 5: Everything We Know So Far
• PlayStation 5 confirmed to have 8C/16T Zen 2 CPU from AMD
• PS5, Project Scarlett may use Samsung's 6th gen V-NAND NVMe SSDs
• PS5 backward compatibility confirmed, will play PS4 games
• Sony's next-gen PlayStation 5 has 4K 120Hz output support
• PS5, Project Scarlett to hit over 10TFLOPs of power, sources say
• PS4 will be supported into 2022, to live alongside PS5
• Sony: ultra-high-speed SSD is 'the key' to next-gen PS5
• PS5 dev kit rumor: 'ultra-fast RAM', Navi GPU with 13 TFLOPs
• PlayStation 5 rumored to ship with 2TB of super-fast SSD for $499
• Insider: PlayStation 5 dev kit faster than Xbox Scarlett right now
• PS5 cartridges aren't real, patents are for Sony kids toys
• PS5's SSD may benefit PS4 games the most
• PS5 powered by Navi in 2020, AMD making Navi with Sony input
• Cloud-powered PlayStation controller may let you play free game demos
• Gran Turismo 7 is a PlayStation 5 launch title: launches Nov 20, 2020
• PS5 confirmed to support 8K video, ray tracing, all on Navi
• PlayStation 5 rumored to cost $499, launches November 20, 2020
• PlayStation game demos are coming back with Sony's ambitious new plan
• PS5 controller: Built-in mic, USB-C, no lightbar, ergonomic design
• PlayStation 5 concept video shows totally new design
• Sony solves PS5's biggest issue
• Sony: PS5 development going according to plan
• New Viking Assassin's Creed may be next-gen console launch game
• AMD working on 'secret sauce' for next-gen Xbox/PlayStation
• The first real photo of a PlayStation 5 dev kit appears
• Next-gen PS5/Xbox Scarlett open-world game: 'best real-time graphics'
• Sony restructures workforce to prepare for PS5
• PlayStation VR 2: built-in cameras, wireless, ready for PS5
• PS5 games will ship on 100GB Blu-ray BDXL discs
• PS5 and Xbox Scarlett will both handle ray tracing differently
• PlayStation 5 could feature AI-powered 'PlayStation Assist'
• Sony won't abandon singleplayer story-driven games on PS5
• PS5 rumor: GPU is nearly as powerful as RTX 2080, GPU clocked at 2GHz
• PlayStation 5 rumored to be unveiled on February 12, 2020
• Sony to raise PS5 cost thanks to U.S. tariffs