World’s biggest gaming conference E3 scraps in-person event for the THIRD year running due to COVID fears
- E3 — short for the Electronic Entertainment Expo — is usually held each June
- The Entertainment Software Association announced the cancellation yesterday
- It seems most likely that, as with last year, a virtual event will be held in its place
- In 2020, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic forced E3 to cancel completely
- Some have begun to speculate as to whether the expo’s future may lie online
The world’s biggest gaming conference will not be held in-person for the third year running amid concerns over the threat continued to be posed by Covid-19.
The Electronic Entertainment Expo — or ‘E3’, for short — has been bringing together gaming developers, publishers and hardware designers annually since 1995.
Since this inception, the showcase for upcoming games and related tech has traditionally been held in the Los Angeles Convention Center in southern California.
The event typically draws such big names from the tech and entertainment world as Capcom, Microsoft, Nintendo, Sega, Square Enix, Ubisoft and Warner Bros.
And in 2017, the formerly industry-only trade event opened its door to members of the general public for the first time — with 15,000 such attendees.
However, Covid-19 forced organisers to cancel the planned 2020 expo, with last year’s held virtually, rebranded as the ‘Electronic Entertainment Experience 2021’.
It seems likely that the 2022 iteration of E3 will also be virtual, although this is yet to be confirmed.
The news comes after a surge in Covid-19 cases and hospitalisations in the US which saw the rolling seven-day average of new cases hit 540,000 on Tuesday.
And this followed mere days on from the country reporting a record one million infections within a single 24-hour period.
The world’s biggest gaming conference will not be held in-person for the third year running amid concerns over the threat continued to be posed by Covid-19. Pictured: E3 in 2019
The Electronic Entertainment Expo — or ‘E3’, for short — has been bringing together gaming developers, publishers and hardware designers annually since 1995. Pictured: E3 in 2019
Since its inception, the showcase for upcoming games and related tech has traditionally been held in the Los Angeles Convention Center (pictured) in southern California
E3 operators the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) announced the decision not to hold the 2022 expo in-person in a statement.
‘Due to the ongoing health risks surrounding COVID-19 and its potential impact on the safety of exhibitors and attendees, E3 will not be held in person in 2022,’ an ESA spokesperson said.
‘We remain incredibly excited about the future of E3 and look forward to announcing more details soon.’
Each June, E3 has long provided video game fans, YouTubers and gaming journalists a tantalising sneak peak at upcoming titles and consoles — with such playing on not-insignificant role in whether such ultimately become commercial successes.
For example, the expo was where Nintendo premiered their Wii gaming console in 2005, where Sony unveiled the PlayStation 4 in 2013 and where iconic games like Halo 2 (in 2005) were first exhibited to the public.
The announcement of the cancellation of E3 in-person this year has been met with some disappointment on social media.
Jen Simpkins of game maker Media Molecule tweeted that she was ‘gutted that E3 seems to be slowly sliding into the abyss.’
E3 operators the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) announced the decision not to hold the 2022 expo in-person in a statement
The ESA’s announcement of the cancellation of the in-person version of E3 this year has come much earlier than the move to do the same in 2020 and 2021, with reports that the decision may have been made as early as back in November.
This had led some to speculate over the nature of the convention’s future — especially given how some big players like Electronic Arts and PlayStation have elected to skip E3 in favour of throwing their own events instead.
However, the speed of this year’s announcement could simply be a result of the organisers taking in the current state of the pandemic while acknowledging the success of last year’s virtual event.
Regardless, this year’s E3 is not the only major showcase event to have been affected by COVID-19 — with the 2022 Grammy Awards being postponed, the Sundance Film Festival to be held virtually and CES being shortened to three days.
The announcement of the cancellation of E3 in-person this year has been met with some disappointment on social media. Jen Simpkins of game maker Media Molecule tweeted that she was ‘gutted that E3 seems to be slowly sliding into the abyss’
The ESA’s announcement of the cancellation of the in-person version of E3 this year has come much earlier than the move to do the same in 2020 and 2021
Rumours are circulating that the decision to go virtual again this year may have been made in as early as November. This had led some to speculate over the nature of the convention’s future — especially given how some big players like Electronic Arts and PlayStation have elected to skip E3 in favour of throwing their own events instead
Magnifying glasses at the ready! World’s smallest GAMES CONSOLE is the same size as a postage stamp
The world’s smallest handheld games console has been developed by US engineers and is about the size of a postage stamp, but plays just like a full-size device.
The ‘Thumby’ console from Ohio-based TinyCircuits comes with five retro games pre-installed, including tiny takes on classics like Tetris, Space Invaders and Snake.
Users can even create their own games using the MicroPython programming language and play multiplayer games with others, by means of a linking cable.
The console is being sold on Kickstarter from £14 ($19) for a basic grey model, with other colours and additional accessories like linking cables also available at higher prices.
Each Thumby sports a working battery, buzzer, gameplay buttons, power switch, screen and a micro-USB port to charge the console and update its software.
The screen is an OLED display and a loop on the bottom-right corner of each tiny, Game Boy-like console allows it to be attached to a keychain just like a keyring.
The world’s smallest handheld games console (pictured) — which is about the size of a postage stamp, but plays just like a full-size device — has been developed by US engineers
‘My goal with Thumby was to make the smallest game console,’ said Thumby’s principal engineer, Ben Rose.
‘When people see tiny, they think cheap. We designed a high-quality product with a powerful processor that defies its size.
‘Thumby started out as my personal project, but as we saw people’s reactions to the prototype, we knew we wanted to make it into a new TinyCircuits product.’
This, he added, will allow ‘more people can put it on their keychain, enjoy playing it, or even create their own games.’
The diminutive handheld recently won ‘Best in Show: Most Innovative Product’ at the GDex Conference in Columbus, Ohio, where the design was praised in particular for how it can help introduce beginners to coding in a fun way.
‘The Thumby is really tiny, and is just the size of a person’s thumb — hence the name,’ said TinyCircuits president Ken Burns.
‘Compared to other game consoles, the entire Thumby is smaller than the typical D-Pad of the controller.
‘I think this is the world’s smallest game console, I haven’t been able to find anything even remotely close to this size.
‘Thumby came from our nostalgia for ’90s retro games.
‘We have a collection of game cartridges and an arcade in our office.
‘We thought it would be cool to have a well-crafted, meticulously made small keychain that is actually playable and programmable.’
The ‘Thumby’ console from Ohio-based TinyCircuits comes with five retro games pre-installed, including tiny takes on classics like Tetris , Space Invaders and Snake. Pictured: the Thumby console, at just 0.7 inches (18 millimetres) across, is about the size of a bee
As the name suggests, TinyCircuits is no stranger to producing small version of existing electronic products.
Its first product in 2012 was TinyDuino, a miniature open-source electronics platform based on Arduino.
It has since followed up with tiny DIY collectable kits including a teeny television, Arcade console and violin, as well as minuscule circuit boards and e-textile applications.
More information on Thumby can be found on the TinyCircuits website, as well as well as the console’s Kickstarter page.
The console is being sold from £14 ($19) for a basic grey model (pictured), with other colours and additional accessories like linking cables also available at higher prices
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