The 2020 Electric Entertainment Expo, otherwise known as E3, has been cancelled due to concerns over the COVID-19 virus, commonly referred to as the Corona virus.
Rumors have sprung up over the past week and a half whether E3 was going to be cancelled following the postponement of GDC. Since then, a number of other events around the globe have been cancelled, including events such as Emerald City Comic Con, SXSW (South by South West), numerous concerts, and many others.
News broke out from industry insiders yesterday about the upcoming announcement that E3 was going to be cancelled. Big companies such as Devolver Digital even went as far as to publicly tweet about the news by telling others to cancel their trip. Image below.
This morning, the ESA (Entertainment Software Association) announced on their website the cancellation of E3 this year. Part of their statement reads, “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.”
The ESA goes on to mention they will be working with partners to help coordinate digital events to showcase what announcements would have been made during the E3 2020 event. Numerous companies such as Microsoft, Ubisoft, and more have already made public statements regarding their plans to host digital events to showcase what announcements they had.
The ESA also mentions offering full refunds to those affected by the cancellation of the event, and will work with partners to better coordinate that process.
With E3 now cancelled, and publishers/companies going the route of hosting digital events this year; the news cycle for game announcements is going to be much different this year than previous years, but as more xbox related news comes up, we’ll do our best to report it here on My Xbox And Me.
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