E3 2020 Has Been Officially Cancelled

It’s official: E3 2020 has been cancelled due to concerns over coronavirus. E3 joins the growing list of conferences and other public gatherings that are being cancelled due to the coronavirus outbreak.

ESA, the organisation behind E3, announced today that it’s cancelling E3 due to “growing concerns” over coronavirus. The decision is not a major surprise, of course.

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“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 decision to cancel E3 2020, scheduled for June 9-11 in Los Angeles,” ESA announced on the official E3 website.

ESA will reach out to attendees and exhibitors in order to provide full refunds. The association is apparently exploring different options for providing an online experience to “showcase” industry announcements and news in June.

E3 2020 was obviously going to be a big event this year, especially with the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X just around the corner. The decision may be disappointing for many, but it’s the right decision to protect everyone.

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Conversation 7 comments

  • Jeremy Turnley

    11 March, 2020 - 12:19 pm

    <p>I get the feeling Sony might be regretting their decision to "play it cool" with PS5 info distribution round about now. Everyone's best guess is that they were planning on upstaging MS at E3 for that last-minute hype boost. Now they have to rely on less spectacular advertising methods, which will be more expensive and less effective.</p><p><br></p><p>Of course, it's Sony, and it's Playstation – it'll be fine either way in the end.</p>

  • harrymyhre

    Premium Member
    11 March, 2020 - 1:57 pm

    <p>Good decision. </p>

  • Daekar

    11 March, 2020 - 2:19 pm

    <p>This does seem a long way off to be canceling – as much as the panicky public sentiment would have you think otherwise, all the numbers I've seen put SARS-CoV-2 at closer to a conventional virus than an epidemic that will have large death counts. I feel like things have been blown out of proportion a bit at this point… The CDC's own data makes this look like a walk in the park compared to the flu from the past 5 years. I'm all for caution, but proportional responses are also important.</p>

    • lvthunder

      Premium Member
      11 March, 2020 - 4:41 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#530434">In reply to Daekar:</a></em></blockquote><p>What do you do when all your sponsors pull out and you don't have the money to pay to put the event on? That's the real reason they canceled.</p><p><br></p><p>Also you haven't been reading the reports out of Italy where the hospitals are running at 200% occupancy. That's the real problem.</p>

  • Travis

    11 March, 2020 - 3:00 pm

    <p>I wonder how this will impact a smaller company like Intellivision with their Amico console launch coming later this year. This was their big chance at publicity before the console launches.</p>

  • spacein_vader

    Premium Member
    11 March, 2020 - 6:46 pm

    <p>This could be a serious issue for E3 and similar shows. The big hitters may find that running their own virtual events means that missingthe huge expense of E3 has no impact on their sales. If that happens they may pull out, which lowers the incentive for both punters and lower tier exhibitors to attend.</p><p><br></p><p>Interesting times.</p>

  • mtsmedly

    11 March, 2020 - 6:52 pm

    <p>How has Build not yet been officially canceled?</p>

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