“We can confirm that we are transforming the E3 experience for 2021 and will soon share exact details on how we bring the global video game community together.” An ESA spokesman said. “We’ve been having great conversations with publishers, developers and companies across the board, and we look forward to sharing details about their involvement soon.”
This news follows a report from VGC, in which the documents of the E3 2021 sent to game publishers set out the proposal which will see three days of direct coverage from the previously announced dates of 15 to 17 June 2021.
The plan includes holding ‘several’ two-hour main sessions of game partners, an awards show, a June 14 preview night and other smaller streams of game publishers, influencers and media partners. ‘
The broadcast event will be preceded by a media preview week and demos will be unveiled to the public during E3 2021 to help celebrate the future of video games.
The ESA also plans to make it possible to “allow partner companies to stream playable game demos at thousands of scheduled meetings remotely to the media”, along with one-on-one assistance from developers.
According to the report, the plans for E3 2021 still need to be approved by the ESA membership, which includes some of the largest gaming companies in the world.Before COVID-19, many companies, including Sony, had already pulled out of E3 in favor of their own digital opportunities. Furthermore, Geoff Keighley, The Video Game Awards and Summer Game Fest, also withdrew from E3 2020 and have no plans to return this year.
Becoming part of E3 is also very expensive, and one video game company has indicated that it would rather hold its own digital event instead of paying the six-figure amounts needed to join E3 2021 -schedule.’
VGC does note that the ESA has not officially canceled plans for a physical E3 2021, but that the digital event is indeed the main focus.The proposed show will take place from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. EST, with local reruns planned around the world. A typical day would include a 30-minute pre-program run by a media partner, followed by a 2-hour “exclusive press conference” by a console platform holder, followed by a question and answer and a panel response . There would then be more third-party publishing offers, a closing program, a preview for the next day and a “charitable after-party” stream.
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Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.