E3 2022 will be a digital-only event

The Entertainment Software Association confirmed that E3 in 2022 will be a digital-only event and says the main reason for the decision is “due to the ongoing health risks surrounding COVID-19”. This marks the second year in a row that the E3 has skipped an in-person event due to the ongoing pandemic. 

First reported by VentureBeat, the ESA is being cautious as the year started with a sudden surge of COVID-19 cases around the globe due to the new Omicron variant. 

Despite the ESA citing that the sudden surge of Covid cases is the main reason for going digital, it looks like the ESA was planning to not have an in-person event before the Omicron surge. According to F-Squared founder Mike Futter, the ESA has “abandoned their dates for the Los Angeles Convention Center” in mid-November of last year.

This is spin. I heard from sources in mid-November, before Omicron's emergence at the end of that month that the ESA had abandoned their dates for the LACC. https://t.co/2oIbkNDFBx

— Mike Futter (@Futterish) January 6, 2022

Futter then said on Twitter that the last digital event they did was “not good. And publishers have learned they don’t need to pay exorbitant rates to the ESA to reach press and consumers” 

It’s sad to hear but if there’s one thing this pandemic has exposed is that a big event like the E3 isn’t as valuable as it once was years ago as big publishers and companies can produce their own shows online to reach their preferred audience. 

As of this writing, the ESA has yet to reveal the dates of the E3 2022 digital-only event. 

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