Gaming
E3 2022 to be held online again due to Covid-19 surge
Dimapur, Jan. 7 (EMN): The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) has announced that its upcoming E3 2022 event will once again be held online amid concerns over rising Covid-19 cases.
The Electronic Entertainment Expo, or E3 for short, is one of the most prominent and popular trade event for the video game industry.
According to a recent report by VentureBeat, the ESA is concerned about the risks surrounding COVID-19 and that this year’s event will not be held in person, just as it did last year.
“Due to the ongoing health risks surrounding COVID-19 and its potential impact on the safety of exhibitors and attendees, E3 will not be held in person in 2022,” said ESA in a statement to VentureBeat. “We remain incredibly excited about the future of E3 and look forward to announcing more details soon.”
The ESA’s announcement comes after many other in-person events have either been delayed or cancelled outright, following an alarming surge in ‘Omicron’ cases across the United State and Europe.
After careful consideration and analysis with city and state officials, health and safety experts, the artist community and our many partners, we have postponed the 64th #GRAMMYs. https://t.co/oMzV1U9Tsc
— Recording Academy / GRAMMYs (@RecordingAcad) January 5, 2022
The current spikes in COVID cases have forced this year’s GRAMMYs awards show to be postponed and Geoff Keighley’s Summer Games Fest should also go online-only.
Although, this year’s CES event went on as planned, however, the event was criticised by many for holding an in-person event. Amazon, T-Mobile, Meta, Twitter, Pinterest, and other companies reportedly did not attend the event.
— Geoff Keighley (@geoffkeighley) January 6, 2022
It may be mentioned that the ESA did not specifically say whether E3 2022 will be an online-only event, however, with no dates set and no physical event planned, going online remains the only logical solution.
We will know more about the event after the ESA sends out an official update on the situation.