The ESA, the organizing body behind E3, has announced an expected change of plans for what remains of this year’s conference. “Given the disruption brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, we will not be presenting an online E3 2020 event in June,” an ESA representative stated. Originally many gamers and analysts thought that the ESA would opt for some kind of live stream event, with remote call-ins or premade video packages being presented. This is obviously not the case anymore.
Rather than going ahead with that plan, E3 2020 has been shelved for the year. It’s understandable why they would make this call. As the COVID-19 pandemic ravages countries all over the globe, everyone is trying to avoid contracting the deadly illness. With that, comes masses of people quarantined on a nationwide scale, and a ton of economic disruption. And with marketing budgets getting eviscerated as a result of this downturn, it was no big surprise that the convention got canned.
There were some plans for publishers to undertake their own digital presentations, but it looks like that could be canceled too. AAA publishers like Bethesda have shelved plans to present online.
Major players like Microsoft have confirmed plans though, intending to host their own events instead of going to E3 or dealing with a third-party digital presentation. A lot of people were shooting for E3 2020 to be a big year. With the impending release of both the PS5 and the Xbox Series X, there were a lot of hopes riding on the event making a good showing. Sadly, it looks like that will not be the case.
Everyone pretty much predicted this was coming. After various companies pulled out, like Sony, E3 2020 was already looking dead in the water. The departure of big-time producer Geoff Keighley also dealt a major blow to the convention, underpinning the seriousness of the situation the ESA found itself in.
The company has announced that E3 will return with a new look and feel next year. The ESA has not yet shared any details on how exactly they plan to “reimagine” the convention.
