GDC bans developers from Russia, canceling registrations and refunding tickets

GDC has officially canceled registrations and tickets for game developers from Russia. The organizers made this decision in the interest of the conference’s attendees.

On March 21, Pixonic’s former PR director Karina Lavushkina shared a letter on Twitter reading that her delegate pass for GDC 2022 was canceled “in the best interest of the event and its attendees” and that the decision “will not be reviewed.”

It is worth noting that Lavushkina is a Ukrainian citizen. However, the Russian Federation was indicated as the company’s country of registration.

Several other delegates from Russia have also said that they received similar notifications from GDC.

In a conversation with Game World Observer, PR agency fortyseven communications confirmed that GDC “has canceled registrations and refunded delegates from Russia per corporate policy of Informa, GDC’s parent company.”

The company hasn’t made any official statement regarding this policy. The decision to ban Russian devs from participating was communicated to the GDC organizers via internal memo.

It remains unclear how many Russian developers and publishers were going to participate in this year’s conference.

GDC 2022 will take place in San Francisco on March 21-25.