The long list of events canceled due to the coronavirus epidemic is getting a new name. On Tuesday, ESA, the lobby representing the American video game industry, formalized what was no longer in doubt: the E3 show will not take place. It was scheduled to take place June 9-11 in Los Angeles.
Created in 1995, the Electronic Entertainment Expo, called E3, is the major annual event of the video game sector. The 2019 edition brought together 200 exhibitors and 66,000 visitors from around the world. Less than a quarter of tickets are reserved for the general public. Most of the participants are professionals: employees of video game companies, buyers of distribution, analysts, media ...
E3 is indeed an opportunity for large companies in the sector to lift the veil on their next productions in a real American show. In the days preceding the opening of the show, Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, EA and Ubisoft each organize spectacular conferences broadcast on the Internet and followed live by millions of spectators. The living room itself is divided into a flashy and noisy show floor , and cozy meeting rooms where business meetings are multiplying.
Online conferences should be continued
If the cancellation of E3 strongly affects professionals, it should not change much for the general public. ESA announces that it is working on "coordinating an online experience allowing the video game industry to make its announcements." In other words, the organization would like the publishers to maintain their conferences, even if the form will necessarily have to be revised to match the absence of an audience.
Microsoft was one of the first to react by announcing that it would organize an online event to unveil its next console, the Xbox Series X, whose release is scheduled for the end of the year. Ubisoft added "currently exploring the various online formats available to us to share our news and our releases."
Phil Spencer is the vice president of Microsoft responsible for video games.
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The cancellation of E3 comes at a time when the show is going through a crisis. More and more video game players, such as EA and Microsoft, are freeing themselves to organize their own events at the same time in Los Angeles. Sony also announced earlier this year that it would skip the show, even though its PlayStation 5 console is due out for Christmas. Attendance at E3 is also down, with 3,000 fewer visitors between the 2018 and 2019 editions.
ESA had announced that the event would be "reinvented" for its 2020 edition. The rare details that filtered suggested that the show should have opened more widely to video game fans with 10,000 additional tickets for the general public, and made the good share for "experiences" and influencers.