The world’s largest gaming convention, the Electronic Entertainment Expo – E3 – will be cancelled this year, according to Ars Technica who were informed by multiple sources.
The massive gaming event where the grandest developers and publishers in the world release trailers and information about their upcoming titles is being cancelled due to the spread of, you guessed it, COVID-19, reports CNet.
Ars Technica says that multiple sources familiar with the Entertainment Software Association, the group behind E3, have confirmed cancellation.
An official announcement is expected to arrive shortly, with one previously scheduled for yesterday, adds the publication.
Prior to the publication of the report, video game publishing mega-power Devolver Digital tweeted: “Cancel your E3 flights and hotels, ya’ll.”
There was already a bubbling yet clandestine sentiment that the expo would be cancelled, following in the footsteps of the World Mobile Congress, the Game Developers Conference and Facebook’s F8 Conference, who were all cancelled to the fears of the virus.
Cancel your E3 flights and hotels, y’all.
— Devolver Digital (@devolverdigital) March 11, 2020
Really mixed emotions about E3 (“seemingly”) getting canceled.
— Jeff Gerstmann (@jeffgerstmann) March 11, 2020
If these rumors are true and E3 is actually getting cancelled this year, I really hope Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft and Square-Enix all still do pre-recorded conferences that week.
A new console generation begins this year! It's too exciting of a year for there to be nothing!
— Roger DiLuigi (@RogersBase) March 11, 2020
After previously saying the event would go ahead as planned, the ESA had stated that it was “monitoring and evaluating the situation daily,” due to Los Angeles, the city that hosts E3, declaring a state of emergency.
E3 had been scheduled to take place on 9 June to 11 June.
Sony, who had dropped out of the event in January and were expected to give a spotlight to the new PlayStation 5, have decided to do so at another time and place.
This cancellation will see the key gaming companies from around the world without one of their largest platforms for reaching their consumers. These companies include industry titans like Nintendo, Ubisoft, Bethesda, Sega, Capcom, Square Enix, Take-Two and Bandai Namco.
No doubt most of them will communicate with users about their releases in due time through another avenue, but many gamers will miss the mass wave of euphoric excitement that E3 brings every year.
Edited by Luis Monzon
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