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In 2020, E3 decided they weren't going to hold their annual event due to COVID-19. Pandemics, am I right? That was probably the smartest idea they've had in a while. What wasn't all that great was the fact that they did not have any sort of digital substitute lined up to replace it. This led to a long, drawn-out Summer where every publisher seemingly had their own event on whatever day and time they wanted.
That kind of sucked.
Thankfully, the organizing body at the Entertainment Software Association are actually planning something for this year. Sadly, COVID-19 is still ravaging the States, especially California. This means that what the ESA is planning has to be all digital, and it is.
According to documents obtained by VGC that were sent to a number of publishers, this year's event will be a digital-only format instead of the usual in-person event held at the LA Convention Center.
This new event will span the course of three days, from June 15-17. Streams would run from 10AM (ET) until 10PM There will be multiple two-hour keynote presentations and a variety of smaller streams from both game makers and media partners. This surely has to be better than Geoff Keighley's Summer Game Fest, right?
“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,†an ESA spokesperson said.
“We are having great conversations with publishers, developers and companies across the board, and we look forward to sharing details about their involvement soon.â€
“We are having great conversations with publishers, developers and companies across the board, and we look forward to sharing details about their involvement soon.â€
I mean, PAX has half the show with its exhibition, and The Game Awards has the announcements and trailers for the other half (and backing of all sorts of publishers apparently, which is sort of why it stopped being an awards show).