The gaming industry’s biggest expo, E3, looks set to go another year without an in-person event after last year’s show was cancelled due to COVID-19.
An agenda for an upcoming meeting of the Board of Los Angeles Convention and Tourism Development Commission, as reported by Resetera, lists E3 as a “cancelled live event”, which seems to confirm that the show will not return in-person this year.
The agenda bolsters claims that E3 will go online this year, following pitch documents obtained by Video Games Chronicle in which expo organiser, the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), detailed “three days of live-streamed coverage held during the previously announced dates of June 15-17”.
“We can confirm that we are transforming the E3 experience for 2021 and will soon share exact details on how we’re bringing the global video game community together,” the ESA said in a media statement.
https://twitter.com/E3/status/1358877754750627842
E3 2020 was cancelled altogether due to the pandemic, with many developers and manufacturers opting instead for their own individual livestreamed events.
Other trade shows such as CES 2021 were also forced online, though the organisers of big European consumer electronics show IFA are adamant that 2021’s event will proceed in person as planned in spite of the coronavirus and associated travel difficulties.