MCV/DEVELOP News, events, research and jobs from the games industry
The organisation behind San Francisco’s Game Developers Conference has made public its opposition to the "muslim ban" put in place via Donald Trump’s executive order on immigration, also tweeting to promise reimbursement for anyone that’s now unable to attend the conference taking place at the end of February.
The immigration executive order puts in place a 90-day ban to those attempting to enter the United States from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen, all countries that are primarily muslim. Muslims from other countries have reported difficulties entering the country, also.
"GDC is a global community – we’re horrified by the #MuslimBan. Of course we’ll refund affected attendees, and keep fighting for inclusivity." tweeted the official GDC account.
Currently, protests at airports, Trump buildings and other government facilities are occuring in opposition to the ban, and a court order was obtained on Sunday night to put a Stay on the executive order, but this is being ignored by federal agencies at this time.
GDC’s decision to denounce the ban seems to mirror that of many senior figures in technology, and also those of several game developers, many of whom are taking to Twitter to express their anger over the ban.
It seems to be the latest controversy from the embattled President who has been in office for a little over a week, however, in this case it has far reaching effects for the international games industry as a whole, as GDC is one of the largest business facing events in the industry, with the other "big" event being E3 in June.
Many will be hoping that this is all resolve by then.
