According to the WHO, we are currently dealing with a global pandemic. We are constantly being informed from all over the world about further cancellations or postponements of large-scale events – including those in the world of technology. MWC 2020 was cancelled, CES 2020 was postponed to November, and this year’s Intel Extreme Masters in Katowice took place without any audience. Now, unfortunately, the time has come for E3 2020. It has been officially cancelled.
For me and millions of gamers around the world, the E3 is kind of an annual celebration that everyone is eagerly awaiting. So much so that every year I take a long leave from work and try to adjust my schedule so that I can watch and report the event as it happens each year. However, in the case of this year’s E3 it will be different – the event in its standard form was cancelled, citing the safety of participants.
Rumours that E3 2020 will be cancelled have been reaching us for a few days now, but now we have official confirmation. The reason for cancelling this event is of course the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, which is becoming an increasing problem every day, not only for the world of technology, but also for society in general – including each and every one of us.
The organizers directly refer to the SARS-CoV-2 virus informing that it is the main reason for cancelling E3 2020. It is difficult to disagree with the decision of the organizers – the safety of participants should always come first and it is no different this time. What only surprised me was that it was decided to cancel this year’s E3 so early, because the event was not to take place until 9 June 2020. On the other hand, it is better to cancel the event much earlier than a few dozen hours before, which is what happened with the IEM in Poland.
A spark of hope is that the organizers of E3 are working on an alternative form of presentation of this event – as it is not hard to guess, all shows will probably take place online, but we will have to wait for more information. Many exhibitors, such as Microsoft or Ubisoft, immediately announced that their presentations will take place – but also only in the form of an online livestream.
