The company behind 'Fortnite' is skipping the biggest video game industry conference of the year because of the coronavirus outbreak

Epic Games, the company behind "Fortnite" and one of the world's most popular game development engines, will no longer attend the 2020 Game Developers Conference, the annual meeting of video game industry employees scheduled for March 16 to 20 in San Francisco's Moscone Center.

Epic CEO Tim Sweeney was scheduled to make a keynote presentation, and Epic made plans to sponsor multiple panel discussions during the week.

Facebook, Microsoft, Sony, and more than a dozen other companies have also announced they would no longer send employees to the conference.

GDC officials acknowledged said the event will proceed as scheduled in a February 20 statement.

COVID-19 has infected more than 78,000 people in China and infections have spread to at least 40 countries. On Tuesday, US health officials warned that the coronavirus outbreak could soon reach the United States.

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Epic Games, the company responsible for "Fortnite" and the Unreal Engine video game development suite, will no longer attend the 2020 Game Developers Conference due to the coronavirus disease, or COVID-19. The annual conference is scheduled to be held in San Francisco's Moscone Center from March 16 to 20. Thousands of attendees are expected, with representatives from every corner of the video game industry.

Epic CEO Tim Sweeney was scheduled to deliver a keynote presentation at GDC, and Epic made plans to sponsor multiple panel discussions and a floor booth during the week. Now, Epic has joined Facebook, Sony, Microsoft, Unity, Electronic Arts, and about a dozen more companies that will no longer send employees due to health concerns.

"Here at Epic we were excited about participating in GDC 2020," Epic announced in a statement. "Regrettably, uncertainty around health concerns has made it unviable to send our employees, and so we have made the difficult decision to withdraw attendance."

Epic's announcement came just a few hours after its main competitor, Unity, announced that it would also no longer attend GDC. Unity, Microsoft, and Facebook have announced plans to make some of their sponsored programming available online during GDC, and its possible that Epic could follow the same course.

COVID-19, the coronavirus disease, originated in China, where more than 78,000 people have been infected, according to the World Health Organization. Nearly 3,000 more cases have been reported in 40 countries around the world, including 53 cases of infection in the United States. The WHO reports that 2,762 people have died due to COVID-19 infection as of February 26, most of them in China.

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