E3 2021 to be digital-only as plans for physical event scrapped

A few weeks ago, we learned a little bit about the ESA's plans for E3 2021. The event was cancelled last year due to the pandemic but this year, it will be coming back as a digital event. While there was still some hope for a physical component to E3 this year, this is confirmed to not be happening. 

According to documents from the Board of Los Angeles Convention and Tourism Development Commission, E3 2021 is a “cancelled event”. The ESA had been working with the commission to enable live broadcasts from locations including the LA Convention Centre and LA Live Complex.

This puts a roadblock in the way of the ESA's plans to gather “celebrities and influencers” for live content, as the ESA will now need to coordinate streams and guests remotely, without a ‘home base' for broadcasting.

Speaking with VGC, an ESA spokesperson said that it is still planning a ‘transformed' E3 experience for 2021 and will soon “share exact details” on how it will “bring the global video game community together”.

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KitGuru Says: At this point, the ESA still plans to hold a digital E3 from 15th June to 17th. Last month, we learned that the organisers were still in talks with publishers, but no specific major press conferences from large publishers or platform holders like Sony, Microsoft or Nintendo have been finalised. 

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