E3 2021's effort to move online due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has not been an entirely smooth process. One way the ESA, E3's organizers, are trying to make the digital shift work is by allowing content creators to co-stream. Approved co-streamers can stream all E3 content live and add their own commentary. Not everyone gets approved for co-streaming, however, as Summer Game Fest host/producer Geoff Keighley can confirm. Keighley shared his co-streaming rejection letter on Twitter Saturday morning.
"Dear creator," reads the opening line of the letter Keighley received, followed by, "Thank you for your interest in co-streaming E3 this year." The letter goes on to explain that E3's co-streaming program has "limited availability" and that its allotment of co-streaming spots had already been filled. It goes on to tell Keighley that the program will hopefully be brought back in 2022 and that it encourages him to reapply then. "Thank you for your interest," reads the closing line of the letter, which is signed by E3 Talent Team Leader Luke Stepleton.
Keighley shared the letter online in good fun. He'd add in a follow-up Twitter post, "Anyone else get this email, or just me?" Geoff Keighley partnered with E3 between 2017 and 2019 for the E3 Coliseum program. However, he very publicly broke off from E3 in 2020 following the ESA's decision to make the event more of a "festival" with more fans and influencers. That was before the pandemic hit, of course. Keighley would go on to start his own separate summer event, the Summer Game Fest.
In other words, it's very likely that the ESA isn't particularly friendly with Keighley right now. That doesn't mean that it hand-rejected Keighley's application for co-streaming, though. Keighley received the same form rejection letter other content creators received. It's perhaps just a hilarious fully-automated coincidence. Few would be surprised if the ESA decided it was best to keep a professional distance with Keighley, though.
Keighley is, of course, perfectly fine not being able to co-stream official E3 2021 broadcasts. He confirms that the Summer Game Fest already has partnership arrangements with publishers for streaming already in place. Keighley likely would have authentically co-streamed E3's broadcasts if he was approved.
At a deeper level, the rejection is emblematic of the increasingly fractured mess that is the video game industry's summer event plans. Discontent with the ESA goes well beyond Keighley's Summer Game Fest. After all, PlayStation and Electronic Arts had already split off to do their own thing even prior to 2020. 2022's summer could prove to be an inflection point for E3 that changes everything dramatically. Keighley getting rejected for E3 2021 co-streaming probably won't help in any regard.
UPDATE: The ESA has provided a statement on its approach to E3 2021 co-streaming:
We welcome anyone who would like to co-stream the event to do so, it just wouldn't be in an "official" capacity.
E3's goal with official co-streaming is to embrace the creator community, and since this is the first time we have ever done official co-streaming with creators, we decided on a small select group this year to monitor the opportunity and see how we can apply it to future E3s.
Out of all the applicants, less than 100 creators/brands were selected for official co-streaming, which consisted of our official distribution service and media partners as well as a diverse group of influencers and creators who consistently create video game content across YouTube, Twitch and/or Facebook.
Again, we welcome everyone who’s interested to co-stream, we're just reminding them to recognize the terms of service for each platform.