GDC 2020 has been officially postponed by the organizers, who posted the following message as an explanation.

　　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.

　　The reason for postponing GDC 2020 is, of course, the continued spread of the coronavirus. Most of the major game companies (Microsoft, PlayStation, Facebook, EA, Kojima Productions, Amazon, Blizzard, Epic Games, CD Projekt RED and others) had already pulled out of the Game Developers Conference, which was scheduled to be held between March 16th and 20th in San Francisco, California. The organizers will now try to reschedule GDC 2020 at some point in the Summer season, although there is no guarantee the coronavirus outbreak will be fully contained by then.

　　In case you were planning to attend, here's an official FAQ about reimbursements and the like.

　　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.

　　What is happening to the talks that would have been presented at Game Developers Conference 2020?

　　In order to allow our conference speakers to still participate in the event, we are intending to make many of the presentations that would have been given at GDC 2020 available for free online. After speakers (optionally) contribute their talks in video format, they will be distributed on the GDC YouTube channel and the free part of GDC Vault.

　　What is happening to the Independent Games Festival and Game Developers Choice Awards - will they still take place?

　　We also intend to stream a set of these GDC 2020 talks and the Independent Games Festival and Game Developers Choice Awards via Twitch during the week that the event would have taken place in San Francisco (March 16th to 20th), so that our community can continue to honor & celebrate its best games.