E3’s Planned Return In 2021 Takes On New Form

The advent of the current COVID-19 pandemic saw the cancellation of many beloved and highly anticipated events in 2020. Most notable in the gaming space was the cancellation of E3, an annual Los Angeles event where game publishers announce their upcoming projects. It is an opportunity for companies to showcase their newest titles and generate excitement amongst loyal fans. Although alternatives such as the Summer Game Fest came out of the cancellation, nothing was quite able to fill the space left by E3.

Despite this, the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) has announced that E3 will be returning in 2021 as a digital event. According to a report from VGC, the ESA has sent out pitch documents to various game publishers outlining this year’s event. The proposal looks to host three days of live-streamed coverage from June 15-17, the previous dates of last year’s canceled event. The current plans would include “multiple two-hour keynote sessions from games partners, an awards show, a June 14 preview night and other smaller streams from games publishers, influencers and media partners.” In addition to this, the week prior to the broadcast event would feature previews, as well as demos made available to the public.

The ESA also announced that it intends to permit partner companies to “remotely stream playable game demos to the media across ‘thousands’ of schedule meetings, with one-to-one assistance from developers”. While this news does come as a warm welcome, the proposal still requires approval from ESA’s membership, a group made up of some of the industry’s largest and most influential games companies.

As of now, it is still unclear how many publishers plan to participate in the event. Even before E3’s cancellation in 2020, several major publishers such as EA, Sony, and Activision had abandoned the event, opting to instead host their own digital events, with one video game company stated that it would choose to host its own event “rather than pay the six-figure sum required to join E3 2021’s schedule.”

VGC’s report also mentions that while the ESA has shifted its focus to the digital showcase, it has yet to officially cancel a physical E3 event, although several publishing sources indicated that they were “working under the assumption that the physical event would not take place this year.”

The digital showcase would host its live broadcast from 10am – 1opm EST, with recordings replayed for global audiences.