E3 Joins Growing List of 2020 Events Canceled Due to Coronavirus

E3 2020, originally scheduled to take place June 9-11 in Los Angeles, joins Coachella and SXSW this week as part of a slew of large-scale media events canceled or postponed due to COVID-19. In a statement released by the ESA Wednesday, the conference cites the “unprecedented global situation” leading to their decision. It seems they will be reaching out to both exhibitors and attendees with information on full refunds, a bold move after SXSW refused to do the same.

The E3 team is devastated to share this news. This decision was not reached lightly, but it is the right one for the health and safety of all involved. Read our statement here: https://t.co/1uOWxTerN9pic.twitter.com/gD2IxNACLX

— E3 (@E3) March 11, 2020

“We are also exploring options with our members to coordinate an online experience to showcase industry announcements and news in June 2020,” the ESA says. More info on that will come later via their press team.

This year’s E3 was already shaping to be a unique one, after Sony announced back in January that they would not be presenting at the conference. They instead claimed they would be focusing on their “global events strategy” in 2020. For some years now, Nintendo has opted to run their own Nintendo Direct during E3, rather than holding a press conference at the event, a strategy that has seen marked success as the Switch continues to surge in sales, which overtook the SNES over the holidays as Nintendo’s third best-selling console to date.