New details about E3 2021 have been released. The revamped event will be supported by Nintendo, Xbox, Capcom, Konami, Ubisoft, Take-Two, Warner Bros, and Koch Media when it returns as a digital event in June.
Nintendo and Xbox’s inclusion gives the newly titled Electronic Entertainment Experience some serious firepower that it needed to maintain a strong presence when it runs from June 12 to 15.
But notable companies like Sony, Electronic Arts, Activision Blizzard, Sega, Bandai Namco, and Square Enix are absent right now, according to a report from gamesindustry.biz. Sony and EA skipping out is nothing new, though, since both have hosted their own events for the last several years around or during E3’s dates.
E3 2021 will be online-only, according to previous reports. The ESA will work with media outlets to “amplify and make this content available to everyone for free,” which gamesIndustry.biz says could result in “media-only days and streaming technology.”
“For more than two decades, E3 has been the premier venue to showcase the best that the video game industry has to offer, while uniting the world through games,” ESA CEO Stanley Pierre-Louis said in a press release. “We are evolving this year’s E3 into a more inclusive event, but will still look to excite the fans with major reveals and insider opportunities that make this event the indispensable center stage for video games.”
Few details have been made available outside of the list of supporting developers and dates, but the press release says the event will focus on helping developers in terms of “showcasing their latest news and games directly to fans around the world.”
Industry insider Daniel Ahmad also said that this change to digital-only for E3 likely means that the Taipei Game Show and China Joy will be the only major gaming events run in person this year since Gamescom 2021 already announced its move to a hybrid format last month.
