One of the higher-ups organising the Game Developer Conference (GDC), Mark DeLoura, has said that companies showing up at the event proves that they care about developers. 

The remark was made by the executive director of innovation and growth to The Games Business, having been asked about big companies such as Unity and Epic reducing their presence at the last iteration of the show. 

“It was noticeable last time,” DeLoura said. 

“As an attendee, I was disappointed not to see Unity and Unreal on the show floor. I worked for Sony and I started the Sony booth 25 years ago… not to see Sony on the show floor is just disappointing. I really feel like you’ve got so many developers there, you’ve got to have a front door. Of course, these companies are going to have their own events, they have their own communities they need to foster, and they can talk about things that are more NDAd at their own events that they may not want to do at a public show. But you’re not going to find the independent developer who doesn’t already know somebody at your shop, unless you’re there with your door open.

“Isn’t that the purpose of conferences? Meeting new people. You’ve decided you don’t want to meet new people, I guess. I can’t understand that. There’s more to it than that, of course. There are costs, etcetera. But developers get the vibe. If you’re not there, or appear not to be there, are they sure that you care about them? That’s what I don’t understand.

“I would say this, because that’s why I got Sony involved in GDC in 2001. We needed to be there. We needed to be there for the developers. It’s important.”