The ESA has confirmed E3 2022 won't be held in person in a statement issued this evening. Citing the "ongoing health risks surrounding COVID-19 and its potential impact on the safety of exhibitors and attendees", the show will not be something both journalists and the public can physically attend this year. Interestingly, though, the statement doesn't mention whether E3 will be presented digitally for a second year running.
While it may be a safe assumption the ESA does have something planned for the summer months, it hasn't come out and confirmed anything at the time of writing. When GamesBeat asked a follow-up question on the possibility of an online event, the company replied that it is "excited about the possibilities of an online event". Again, no confirmation.
There's also talk online that the statement in question is nothing more than a cover-up. Business analyst Mike Futter said on Twitter that according to their sources, the ESA "had abandoned their dates for the Los Angeles Convention Center" back in mid-November. This would suggest the Entertainment Software Association never had any plans to host E3 2022 in public in the first place.
No matter what happens, we'll still have Geoff Keighley's Summer Game Fest to look forward to. The popular host confirmed its return as soon as the ESA statement was issued, almost as if he'd planned it this way all along.
[source venturebeat.com]
Comments 19
Can a business analyst do a quick look over of ESA's finances and tell us if they're in trouble? I'll pay you ÂŁ1.50.
I miss e3.use to be the video games industry biggest days.health is first.hopefully everyone stay safe out there.word up son
Hopefully it stays all-digital. The showcases have only improved since they got the often cringy stage show stuff out of the way. Besides, the vast, vast majority of people interested in E3 didn't attend physically anyway.
People can still watch TGA if they enjoy being bored by streams of in-person events.
Does that mean I'll have to do all my own fake cheering and whooping again?
If there will be no public events, what exactly is E3? How is it different than publishers/developers hosting their individual events independently during a certain period of time (summer or whatever)?
If there even is an E3 show this year it’ll most likely just be a pre-recording with maybe one lone presenter and devs using Zoom showing and explaining their games.
@Integrity make sure you start as soon anything is shown regardless of what it is... Whoooooooo yeah! Wooooohooooo!
Just let it die gracefully, we all know it’s over.
Yeah, Covid concerns sounds like an excuse/cover up. Seems to happen often. See the recent delay of Morbius for one.
@Gloamin I know you joke but for what it’s worth: my partner’s company hosts similar conferences although in a different field (science/medicine.) For them, not hosting these in person is a huge loss in money, but they still host online zoom based conferences that are not what you would expect as “going online.” In E3 speak, it could possibly mean zoom meetings that are restricted to press members with passes that get to see digital presentations with publishers and platform holder representatives.
It could be more akin to a virtual show floor where the press gets to, in groups, together join a given game or publisher meeting to be able to ask questions. Press might get a press kit with trailers and stuff they can then post on their respective websites and YouTube channels.
As much as we, the users, like to see the reveals on E3, their meats and potatoes have always been the floor where the press can meet and ask questions from publisher representatives.
Just let it die already. Every major pub can do a show case themselves and smaller indie titles will just need to align with a console (publisher) or just another publisher to gain traction. The only devs my suggestion would hurt are AA and smaller self published developers... which is unfortunate but a reality
@get2sammyb I didn't read your comment before I commented but i think it just elaborated on what you said lol
I wouldn't be surprised if this is E3's last year.
After last year which was the worst E3 I've ever watched they should scrap it, especially as the big bits ain't there anyway
@Alan_cartridge_ yeaaahhhh!! Sorry what did you say? ...whhooooooppp!!!
I feel that E3 will last as long as there's no good replacement.
Sony did so well without E3 in 2020 but they ditched traditional events after their infamous E3 2018 press conference (even PSX didn't happen in December 2018) so they were very prepared.
Nintendo in 2020 instead of their normal Direct approach went mostly for very slow drip feed of info meanwhile getting 3rd party Switch news out there via Partner Showcases.
Microsoft had 2 infamous 2020 events, a 3rd party one that promised gameplay but had very little and a more general event which the main thing that came out of it was Craig memes.
Meanwhile events like Summer Game Fest were slow drip feed of content.
So when the 2021 Nintendo and Xbox news was a lot better than in 2020, E3 was kept safe given a lot of the biggest news from both was their E3 presentations.
i hope E3 this year is better, because E3 2021 was atrocious, only Nintendo/Microsoft conference was worth watching it.
I know the PS-only perspective is on "E3 is irrelevant" (Soapbox from Sammy in 3...2...1..) because Jim picked up his ball and went home years ago, but Jim also killed their own events, so that's hardly an indictment on E3. A concise, industry-sponsored event like E3 is still a meaningful event, if only for the core fans, to celebrate and get a handle on the world of gaming.
The organization itself may well have trouble and it may not be what it was, but we should be hoping for them to improve, not vanish. To me, the fun and hype of new releases just isn't there without E3 events. Consider it a pep rally for video games, except unlike pep rallies, the audience actually cares. Random SoP videos just sucks, and like with the PSVR announcement the other day, you miss the reveal, you find out from 2-day old posts after the fact and instead of enjoying the big wait and reveal and reveling in the moment you just walk away with "ok, yeah, that's going to be a thing, ok cool."
Although, maybe not getting hyped for new releases isn't so bad, since at the new pricing I have no intention of buying games before the 6-12 month discounts take effect anymore.
Sure last year's digital E3 wasn't great, but in hindsight, last year didn't have that many games come out as our awkward GOTY nominees lists attest to, so E3 was appropriately sized for what the industry was releasing in 2021. 2022 is going to be an insurmountable cascade of competing major releases stepping all over each other consolidating 3 years of games. E3 should, if it appears digitally, be an amazing E3. Last year, MS and Nintendo had great shows. Sony of course doesn't participate, and the 3rd party shows were lame, but, the 3rd party release schedule was lame, so E3 21 represented the industry in 21 accurately, good or bad.
If anything is really holding E3 back it's the egomaniac Keighly making power plays to replace it with his own lame self-promotional event.
RIP physical E3 2022, not that I was ever going to attend it IRL.
Looking forward to the digital event if they go that route again this year.
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