E3 Will Be Digital Only in 2022

According to popular insider Tom Henderson, E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo) will once again be a digital only affair this year. Henderson posted the news to Twitter yesterday, claiming that the ESRB had sent out emails to developers informing them of the format for the gaming 2022 conference.

This would effectively squash the rumors circulating that the convention had been cancelled this year altogether. The Entertainment Software Association (ESA), the controlling entity behind the E3 conference put out a statement at the beginning of the year revealing that the convention would not be held in person in 2022 due to Covid restrictions.

Shortly after the ESA made this announcement, insider Jeff Grubb posted a video in which he claimed that the digital portion of E3 had also likely been cancelled, which would effectively cancel the entire show. Henderson’s tweet directly contradicts this, and there has been no indication from the ESA whatsoever that suggested that the show was cancelled. This shows the importance of always taking rumors with a grain of salt. The fact that E3 is digital only again this year has also not been confirmed, but Henderson also mentioned that if the ESRB is sending out emails, then we should expect an official announcement soon.

E3 as a convention has been in decline for years, with EA departing the show to host its own show, EA Play in 2016, and convention pillars like Nintendo opting to make announcements on YouTube instead of having a keynote at the show. After Sony pulled out of the show in 2019 and its complete cancellation in 2020 due to Covid, many feel that the convention is a shell of its former self, and have much less interest in a convention that used to be the biggest gaming convention on the planet.

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