E3 has long been a staple of the video game industry, serving as the biggest show of the year. An E3 event too place every year since 1995, but that streak was broken in 2020. E3 2020 was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic, though the big show will be making a comeback in 2021. The ESA has now confirmed some more details about what fans can expect from E3 2021, which will be a digital-only event.
Contrary to previously reported dates, E3 2021 will take place between June 12 and June 15. As expected, E3 2021 will be an all-digital event, available to watch completely for free. While this was the assumption anyway, there were some reports that some of E3 2021 would be behind a paywall, though the ESA was quick to shut down those rumors. And that's a good thing, too, as E3 2021 is boasting quite the lineup.
E3 2021 will feature new game reveals from Capcom, Koch Media, Nintendo, Take-Two, Ubisoft, Warner Bros. Interactive, and Xbox. Presumably, this means that the previously announced Xbox summer event will be at E3, though that has yet to be clarified. It's also unclear which days these companies will be hosting their presentations, or even if all of them will be having presentations or not.
There are some notable absences from the E3 2021 lineup that fans will likely notice. PlayStation is once again skipping E3, so PS4 and PS5 fans don't have quite as much incentive to tune in. Electronic Arts is also opting out of this year's E3, though that has been the norm for EA for a few years now. While EA has skipped being a part of the official E3 festivities, it has hosted its own EA Play showcase adjacent to E3, and it's highly likely that 2021 will have an EA Play event of its own for fans to look forward to.
Another company that's absent is Square Enix, which is surprising since Square Enix only recently started doing E3 press conferences again. These companies will definitely be missed come E3 time, but fans should still be able to look forward to things like PlayStation's State of Play events throughout 2021 to get the latest news on games coming to Sony's PS4 and PS5 consoles.
E3 isn't the only big summer gaming event happening in 2021. The Game Awards host Geoff Keighley has confirmed that Summer Game Fest is returning this year as well, so video game fans should have plenty of big announcements in store this summer.
Source: GamesIndustry