Report: E3 2020 canceled over coronavirus concerns

This year’s E3 gaming convention, held annually since 1995, is expected to be canceled on Wednesday morning amid concerns over the novel coronavirus known as COVID-19.

According to Ars Technica, citing sources, the announcement was expected on Tuesday, but that date apparently slipped. Bloomberg also reported the cancellation of E3 2020, saying the announcement will now be made official at 9:30 a.m. PT by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), which has hosted the event since its inception.

Polygon has reached out to the ESA for comment and confirmation, and will update when the organization responds.

E3 2020 was scheduled to take place June 9-11 in Los Angeles, bringing together publishers and developers from the global games industry. Also on the guest list were thousands of members of the public who paid to attend. It’s unclear when or if the convention will be rescheduled, but Bloomberg adds that its source says the ESA is exploring options for remote streaming.

The announcement follows a declaration of a state of emergency in Los Angeles, issued on March 4. There was also a tweet from publisher Devolver Digital Tuesday night which warned E3 attendees, “cancel your E3 flights and hotels, ya’ll.”

The postponement comes at a difficult time for the ESA and E3. While big-name participants like Microsoft and Nintendo planned to participate at this year’s expo, Sony is skipping the show for the second year in a row. Attendance at E3 has been flagging for several years, which the lobbying organization tried to compensate for by opening to the public in 2017. For the 2020 convention, the ESA said it wanted to “shake things up” with even more fan-focused programming.

While fan conventions like Chicago’s C2E2 and Boston’s PAX East went off with little interruption in recent weeks, several larger events have been canceled. They include the postponement of the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco; the cancellation of SXSW in Austin, Texas; the cancellation of BitSummit in Kyoto, Japan; and the cancellation of the ReedPop’s Emerald City Comic Con in Seattle, Washington.

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Charlie Hall
Polygon