[News] E3 2020 has been cancelled

[pkmin3033]

With many public events worldwide being cancelled due to the coronavirus, it should perhaps come as no surprise that E3 has followed suit. The ESA issued the following statement today:

"After careful consultation with our member companies regarding the health and safety of everyone in our industry–our fans, our employees, our exhibitors and our longtime E3 partners–we have made the difficult decision to cancel E3 2020, scheduled for June 9-11 in Los Angeles."

"Following increased and overwhelming concerns about the COVID-19 virus, we felt this was the best way to proceed during such an unprecedented global situation. We are very disappointed that we are unable to hold this event for our fans and supporters. But we know it's the right decision based on the information we have today."

Were you looking forward to E3 this year, or is this perhaps simply another nail in the coffin of what is being seen as an increasingly irrelevant expo, with many developers abandoning it in favour of online presentations and sporadic news updates? With E3 officially cancelled, do you expect a digital equivalent from developers? Will other events such as Gamescom follow suit?

Source

 

[Fleurdelis]

We will have to wait and see if Gamescom is to follow suit, anything can happen between those two events.

If things go like they go now and nothing changes then I do fear that also Gamescom is to be cancelled.

Personally never fond of E3, Gamescom is more my suite... totally not cause its way closer than E3 and I got to play neat games on Gamescom the two times I went there, totally not.

 

[Uragirimono]

This seriously blows. At least they might bring it back next year..?

 

[Sheep]

I was looking forward to the Nintendo side but not surprised it was cancelled yeah ): Hopefully we can at least get some video presentations/reveals! that would def satisfy me. i want newsss

 

[The Mega Champion]

Are there still going to be maybe online only presentations/Directs/whatever you want to call them instead? Or do we not know this yet?

As for me... I'm extremely disappointed. E3 is pretty much the only thing I actually look forward to every year for gaming

 

[Palamon]

I'm actually surprised e3 was cancelled considering that it's always in June... but health and safety of the public come first. Maybe there will be directs instead or online conferences to compensate for it being cancelled?

 

[Pyrax]

I love watching those livestreams, as late as they are in the UK. It's such a shame, but probably for the best? There will be hundreds of people packed into the venue space after all. Imo no E3 this year is an incentive for developers to release trailers or announce games at their leisure rather than waiting until June.

 

[Cherrim]

I'm almost certain we'll still get things like Nintendo Directs and some sort of "conference" from a lot of the big players this year regardless of whether there's a physical conference or not. E3 conferences have come a long way in the last decade and they know that the people watching them are gamers, not the media and business side. Just because they're missing out on the dated show floor aspect of the conference doesn't mean they can't rally together and do a sort of online E3, since that's what the vast majority of people who tune into E3 news are there for anyway.

I'm actually thinking this could be one of the best things to ever happen to E3—finding a way to move it largely online and scale it down from the bloated event it's turned into. If everyone involved can revamp and move into a more virtual showcase, I think everyone will benefit and future shows won't be so pointlessly extravagant. But I guess we'll see if that's the way they manage to go.

 

[gimmepie]

I'm not too put out, they'll find other ways to do the reveals. It's a bit sad not to have the cringe spectacle, but it's not the end of the world.

 

[pkmin3033]

I've seen Ubisoft and Devolver Digital state that they'll be airing their press conferences online (and thank god for the latter, it's always a laugh) and Square Enix will be exploring other options. The BAFTA Game Awards will be streamed online too. So life goes on.

I used to love E3, but since it became less about the games and more about the spectacle and who is up on the stage I've been losing interest in it. It's always an exciting time when new games are released, and E3 was something you could count on to have big reveals - and in a world where we go over six months without a Nintendo Direct, having something like this to look forward to is important - but in its current form it's an embarrassment. Hopefully the year's break will give companies time to re-think how they present their information, and those now in charge of E3 some time to reflect and restructure for next year.

 

[colours]

i really only cared about the nintendo directs that happen around E3, and i don't think E3's cancellation will affect that... too much, i think?