Most companies will hold online presentations instead

Mar 12, 2020 04:31 GMT  ·  By

After WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic, E3's cancellation announcement shouldn't surprise anyone. It's not the first major event this year that's been canceled amidst coronavirus fears and surely won't be the last.

After careful consultation with our member companies regarding the health and safety of everyone in our industry – our fans, our employees, our exhibitors and our longtime E3 partners – we have made the difficult decision to cancel E3 2020, scheduled for June 9-11 in Los Angeles.”

Unfortunately, many developers have already booked their plane tickets and hotels, and most likely paid for them, so the cancellation is quite a blow for the smaller ones. Well, at least they don't have to worry about getting their money paid for the E3 2020 tickets back since the management team behind the gaming event confirmed it will offer full refunds.

E3 also confirmed that it will try to find other ways to offer consumers online experiences that will showcase some of the most important announcements that should have been revealed on the floor.

Our team will be reaching out directly to exhibitors and attendees with information about providing full refunds. We are also exploring options with our members to coordinate an online experience to showcase industry announcements and news in June 2020.”

As a matter of fact, Microsoft and Ubisoft have already confirmed that they will announce their new products online, but other major developers and publishers are likely to adopt the same approach in the coming weeks.

The next big gaming event for this year, Gamescom is happening in about five months from now, but it's unclear what will happen if the spread of the coronavirus doesn't slow down. At the moment, Gamescom hasn't been canceled yet, but it won't be a surprise if it would.