Every year since 1995, E3 has been the biggest event in gaming. E3 has played host to some of the industry's most game-changing announcements, has featured no shortage of shocking reveals, and has generally been the event video game companies have used to promote their new titles to the world. But due to the ongoing global threat of the coronavirus, the Entertainment Software Association has made the decision to cancel E3 2020, breaking an annual streak that's been going strong since 1995.
"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 difficult decision to cancel E3 2020, scheduled for June 9-11 in Los Angeles," the Entertainment Software Association said in a statement. "Following increased and overwhelming concerns about the COVID-19 virus, we felt this was the best way to proceed during such an unprecedented global situation. We are very disappointed that we are unable to hold this event for our fans and supporters. But we know it's the right decision based on the information we have today."
This decision isn't entirely unexpected considering the increasingly dangerous threat of the coronavirus and how it has already caused many other events to be canceled or postponed, but there's no doubt still some who are disappointed that E3 2020 will not be taking place.
The cancellation of E3 2020 throws a lot of things into question. For example, E3 2020 was when Microsoft planned to showcase the Xbox Series X, highlight major games for the platform like Halo Infinite. The event was also likely to play host to a special Nintendo presentation where the Big N would show off all the biggest upcoming Switch games, perhaps even titles like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2.
Sony already planned to skip E3 2020 this year, so while the show wouldn't have been as big as it was before, it still would have had plenty of major announcements and reveals. But even though E3 2020 isn't taking place, that doesn't mean these companies are just going to sit on their games and announcements. On the contrary, fans can still expect Microsoft to showcase the Xbox Series X and for other companies to reveal their new games, just in a different manner than before.
It seems likely that these announcements will instead happen during livestreams. In fact, Microsoft has already confirmed an Xbox Series X and Project xCloud livestream for next week, so it seems that major next-gen announcements were already planned to be happening that way. Not only that, but the ESA says that it is "exploring options" to "coordinate an online experience" for industry announcements in June 2020. However, it's possible companies will decide to make their announcements earlier or even later than June now that the physical E3 2020 event is not happening.
The cancellation of E3 2020 really changes when new hardware and games will be showcased. So fans can still look forward to all the big announcements that would typically happen at E3 every year, they will just be less sure when those announcements will actually take place. Fans can also count on E3 2021 taking place next year, which the ESA is pushing as a "reimagined event," though details on what exactly that will entail remain scarce at this time.