E3 2020 Poll 1

Believe it or not, last week should have been E3 2020. The show was cancelled due to coronavirus, of course, but incredibly the global pandemic was the least of its problems. News of a new direction – a so-called “influencer festival” – emerged last year, before PlayStation once again decided to pull out. The show’s chief creative team then resigned, while host Geoff Keighley also withdrew his support.

Given how badly things were going, coronavirus may have been a blessing in disguise for organisers ESA – but did you miss it all the same? Obviously, we got the big PlayStation 5 reveal on Thursday, as well as some smaller streams from the likes of Games Radar. Electronic Arts will follow with a broadcast of its own this week, while Ubisoft will have a showcase in July.

It’s certainly a different approach, but thus far our perspective is that it’s given everything a little more breathing space. Announcements have been coming thick and fast from publishers, but where titles like Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2 on the PlayStation 4 would have been nice footnotes during a typical E3 week, they’ve been gifted more of a platform and opportunity to shine.

As such, it’s hard to imagine publishers ever returning to the hustle and bustle of E3, although we’ll need to see how the rest of the summer pans out. What are your thoughts so far? Did you miss E3 2020 last week? Are you enjoying the way publishers are sharing their news so far? And do you think E3 will ever be the same again?

By the way, while you're here you may be interested in our interview with Adam Boyes about Sony's legendary E3 2015 briefing, as well as our look back at PlayStation's press conference highs and lows.

Did you miss E3 2020 last week?
Do you think E3 will ever be the same again?