Gameitall 
After a day of rumours and speculation, the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) has confirmed that they will be cancelling this year’s Electronic Game Expo (E3) over the growing concerns of the Novel Coronavirus, which was officially declared a pandemic on Wednesday.
Devolver Digital was the first to bring up the cancellation before the ESA officially announced their plans, advising people to “Cancel your E3 flights and hotels, y’all.” Early Wednesday morning, the ESA released their official statement, advising that they are “exploring options with our members to coordinate an online experience to showcase industry announcements and news in June 2020.”
E3 has been one of the big gaming events that would allow publishers to promote some of the new games and hardware coming out within the next couple of years and usually had several reoccurring press events from companies like Bethesda, Ubisoft, Microsoft, Playstation, Square Enix and Devolver Digital. Playstation previously mentioned that they were going to pull from the event despite plans to launch the PS5 later this year, and EA has been doing their own thing with EA Play for a couple of years now.
However, it seems that the Coronavirus isn’t going to stop the big announcements as several companies have stated that they will do a live-stream for upcoming announcements. “The week of E3 has always been a big part of what we do are genuinely bummed about the cancellation of the event itself,” tweeted Devolver Digital. “Lots to juggle but right now we plan on having a Livestream Devolver Direct/press conference and possibly more.”
Microsoft’s Phil Spencer also announced a digital event as well, tweeting: “E3 has always been an important moment for Team Xbox. Given this decision, this year we’ll celebrate the next generation of gaming with the @Xbox community and all who love to play via an Xbox digital event. Details on timing and more in the coming weeks”
Ubisoft has also stated that they will be looking into a digital event, while EA is still monitoring the situation for EA Play 2020. Square Enix and Bethesda have yet to confirm what they are planning as a substitution for the event.
