Death Threats Lead To Cancellation Of GDC Rust Fan Meeting

The Game Developers Conference (GDC) is next week, and while that’s normally a time for developers from around the world to meet up, the developers of Rust were also planning on using the event to catch up with fans. That now won’t be happening.

As PC Gamer report, the original plans were for a meeting—at a “coffee shop in San Francisco”—to be “a chance for conference attendees and fans to meet the Rust team, share their portfolios, and ‘talk shop’”.

It has been now been cancelled after the developers received “threats to kill”, with the team posting a statement to Twitter that reads:

This is not a statement we’re happy to announce.

Due to an IRL threat we must take seriously, we’re going to have to cancel the GDC meetup in San Fran next week. 😢

Fans are instead encouraged to “reach out via email!” instead. “It’s important to remember the developers are indeed humans”, they add in a follow-up Tweet, saying “When threats arise we make their safety #1.”

“The overwhelming majority of fans are respectful and supportive,” Rust producer Alistair McFarlane told PC Gamer, adding “there is always going to be a small subset of individuals who engage in threatening and abusive behaviour.”

It’s important to note that this meetup wasn’t a part of the official Game Developers Conference schedule of events, and so had nothing to do with the organisers of GDC. This was something the Rust team were organising outside of that, just to take advantage of the fact that the team and fans were going to be in the same space for a few days.

The cancellation also only affects this one meetup; developers Facepunch will still be attending the Game Developers Conference itself, which runs from March 20-24.