E3 2021 live event canceled, city of LA documents show

The E3 physical event for 2021 has been canceled, according to documents from the city of Los Angeles released this week.

In a new report released by the Board of Los Angeles Convention and Tourism Development Commission, a sales update classifies E3 2021 as a “canceled live event.”

The document says the convention’s board is working with E3 organizer The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) on streaming options at the Los Angeles Convention Center and nearby LA Live complex. The city council also says it is “working” on a 2022 and 2023 license for E3.

The cancellation would mark the second year in a row that the E3 event has been canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.

As VGC exclusively revealed this month, ESA has moved ahead with plans for an E3 digital event this summer, but it still requires support from the big game companies.

According to E3 2021 blurbs sent to game publishers and viewed by VGC, ESA outlined its proposals for this year’s event, which would see three days of live coverage take place on the previously announced dates of the June 15 to 17.

The broadcast event would be complemented by media previews the previous week, as well as demos broadcast on consumer platforms, according to ESA’s proposal.

However, the E3 2021 plans still require approval from members of ESA, which is made up of the biggest game companies in the industry and has significant influence over the direction of the show.

ESA was already facing significant pressure to reinvent E3, with several major publishers, including EA, Sony and Activision, having dropped the event in recent years – and that was before the 2020 cancellation, after which to many companies such as EA and Ubisoft have found success running their own digital events.

Several game publication sources had told VGC that they were working under the assumption that the physical event would not take place this year.

In a statement to VGC, ESA said it would share exact details about this year’s E3 show soon and claimed it was having “good conversations” with developers and publishers, but would not confirm. who had registered for the event.

“We can confirm that we are transforming the E3 experience for 2021 and will soon share exact details on how we bring together the global video game community,” said an ESA spokesperson. “We have great conversations with publishers, developers and companies from all walks of life, and we look forward to sharing details of their involvement soon.”

Commenting on the VGC report, former Nintendo of America boss Reggie Fils-Aimé said this month that he believes ESA needs to act quickly if it is to save the historic games event.

Speaking to Gamertag Radio, Fils-Aimé said he saw reports of E3’s digital comeback in 2021 and was not thrilled. “I have to say that what I’m reading doesn’t sound so convincing.”

“If I were king for one day, I will tell you how I would do it,” he said. “I think doing this digitally is absolutely right and the reason is that there are over 60,000 people who would typically attend an E3. There are millions of others interested in finding out what’s going on and digital execution of an event is the way to bring that to life, so it’s the right way.

“Having said that, I think platform owners need to find a digital way to let their fans, their players, experience the content, because that’s the key to good E3 – the ability to play The Last of Us Part 3 for the first time, or to play the next game Breath of the Wild for the first time, or to play the next big game from the new merger of all Xbox studios.

“Playing for the first time is what is magic and platform owners have to figure out how to deliver that experience to their fans in an E3-like digital experience. I think it would be huge.