The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) have announced that they will not be hosting digital events for the recently cancelled E3 2020, due to the risks of the coronavirus pandemic.

E3 2020 was officially cancelled in March, numerous companies (including Microsoft, Devolver Digital, and Ubisoft, but not Bethesda) announced they would be hosting their own digital events around the time E3 2020 would have happened.

At the time, the ESA also stated they would be “exploring options with our members to coordinate an online experience to showcase industry announcements and news in June 2020.”

Now, a representative of E3 organizers has issued a statement to PC Gamer, confirming they will not even be hosting digital events.

“Given the disruption brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, we will not be presenting an online E3 2020 event in June. Instead, we will be working with exhibitors to promote and showcase individual company announcements, including on www.E3expo.com, in the coming months. We look forward to bringing our industry and community together in 2021 to present a reimagined E3 that will highlight new offerings and thrill our audiences.”

GameSpot reports they received the same statement when they contacted the ESA.

In other news, IGN announced they would host a “Summer of Games” in June, around the time E3 2020 would have been held. In addition, the ESA announced the dates of E3 2021.

The coronavirus pandemic (also known as COVID-19 officially, or Chinese Flu to others) has affected many worldwide, from businesses to public gatherings and events. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8]. This includes the postponement of GDC, and the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, along with the aforementioned cancellation of E3 2020, and Comiket 98.

We also recently reported on Japanese ratings board CERO suspending operations during the state of emergency in Japan.

The Johns Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering are mapping the virus’ spread [1, 2]. As of this time of writing, there have been over 1.3 million total confirmed cases worldwide, and over 994,000 active cases. There have been over 76,000 deaths, however over 292,000 people have made a “total recovery.”