E3 Could Be Cancelled Altogether Rather Than Held Online, Per Insider

 According to an insider, the ESA is considering canceling E3 2022 outright instead of returning to the virtual livestream format of last year.

According to one insider, E3 2022 might be canceled outright rather than be held online. The long-running gaming showcase was shut down in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which sent a shockwave throughout the gaming industry as it has with virtually everything else over the past few years. Last year, E3 was able to return in a livestream format, with the added hope that 2022's event could return to a physical stage thanks to COVID-19 vaccines.            

However, the rise of new COVID variants has put those plans into question. A few weeks ago, the Entertainment Software Association (which organizes E3 every year) weighed in on the possibility of E3 being held online once again in 2022 due to ongoing COVID concerns. Gaming journalists like Mike Futterish and Jason Schreier have speculated that the ESA is using the pandemic as a pretext to abandon a physical stage for E3 in favor of a virtual-only format going forward. Now, new rumors suggest that this year’s E3 might not be held at all.

According to Game Rant, VentureBeat reporter Jeff Grubb recently claimed that E3 2022 might be canceled in a TikTok video (which has since been posted onto YouTube by Jeff Grubb's Game Mess). Instead, developers and publishers will supposedly make their major gaming announcements at other venues like Geoff Keighley's Summer Game Fest or even their own in-house events, like they had when E3 was canceled in 2020. ESA has yet to officially confirm E3 2022’s cancellation.

Other livestream events like Summer Game Fest and Sony’s PlayStation Showcase filled the void left by E3 in 2020, providing players with a first look at then-upcoming titles like Halo Infinite and even the reveal of the PlayStation 5 console. Even after E3 returned in 2021, major companies like Sony and EA opted out of the event, and many fans feel that the reveals that were present at last year’s event were mostly lackluster. As such, many are starting to feel that E3 is losing its relevance among the gaming community, a sentiment that has been brewing since even before the COVID-19 pandemic began.          

Despite the COVID-19 variants continuing to cause havoc across the world and E3 shrinking in support and fan excitement over the past few years, the ESA canceling this year's event altogether would be quite surprising, though nothing official has been confirmed yet. Even if E3 2022 goes on, it isn’t clear yet what kind of form it will take - or if the once-prestigious gaming showcase can regain the spark that many feel has been lost over the past few years.