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Report: ESA set to cancel E3 2020

Report: ESA set to cancel E3 2020

This year's E3 is set to be cancelled.

That's according to various industry sources speaking to journalists, including Ars Technica, which have said that the LA trade show is to be postponed in the near future. Some have said that organiser, US video games trade body the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), is going to announce the show's cancellation at 9:30am PST.

The move is due to the continued spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus, with the ESA saying previously that E3 was still taking place and that it was "monitoring and evaluation the situation daily" following California declaring a state of emergency.

The pressure was already on for the ESA to deliver at this year's show. E3 has diminished in importance over the years with an increasing number of big-name publishers now showing up at the LA trade show. The trade body had promised that it would "shake things up" with this year's show, bringing in industry talent like Iam8bit to help organise the show floor experience. That company pulled out of the show in recent days.

E3 would be the latest in a long line of events that have been cut due to the coronavirus outbreak. GDC has already been cut, as has Eve Fanfest. Mojang announced that Minecraft Festival wouldn't be taking place, either.


PCGamesInsider Contributing Editor

Alex Calvin is a freelance journalist who writes about the business of games. He started out at UK trade paper MCV in 2013 and left as deputy editor over three years later. In June 2017, he joined Steel Media as the editor for new site PCGamesInsider.biz. In October 2019 he left this full-time position at the company but still contributes to the site on a daily basis. He has also written for GamesIndustry.biz, VGC, Games London, The Observer/Guardian and Esquire UK.