Just days after the CTA announced plans to host the CES 2021 as an online event next January, the organizers of the annual gaming-related expo, Game Developers Conference (GDC), has revealed something similar for GDC 2021. According to an official press release on Wednesday, GDC 2021 will run from July 19-23 in San Fransisco, California, but as an ‘hybrid’ event because of the pandemic. The organizers also revealed a new structure for virtual and physical GDC events for the rest of 2020 and 2021.
According to the new plan, “GDC 2021 will be … a hybrid event taking place physically in San Francisco with a robust virtual offering. This will take place from Monday, July 19th through Friday, July 23rd, 2021 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco and online”. The organizers will apparently offer attendees “a choice of attendance options and possibilities for GDC” in the coming events, starting with the 2021 event.
In addition to GDC 2021, a set of virtual GDC ‘Master Classes’ will launch in late 2020. “These master classes will be day-long and multi-day virtual workshops featuring deep-dive looks at particular aspects of the game development craft”, said the organizers. Finally, a week-long single-track ‘GDC Community Celebration’ will run from March 1-5 with a whole host of streaming content, including behind-the-scenes lectures on top games of the past year and more.
The announcement comes at the conclusion of GDC Summer, the first fully-virtual GDC event, which ran from August 4-6. Originally set to take place from March 16-20 in San Francisco, California, GDC 2020 was postponed to August because of the pandemic. The organizers had originally planned to go ahead with the event on schedule, but finally postponed it following a slew of cancellations.
