E3 2022 Will Be Online Again This Year Due to Covid Concerns

For decades, E3 has remained one of the biggest events in gaming, complete with hot previews and cool announcements. However, this year’s E3 will be online-only due to health concerns over COVID-19.

On one hand, this news isn’t very surprising. After all, E3 2021 was online-only for the same reason. On the other hand, the Entertainment Software Association was optimistic last year about returning to an in-person event in 2022. Sadly, that is not going to happen this year.

In an online statement, the ESA kept things very brief. “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. We remain incredibly excited about the future of E3 and look forward to announcing more details soon.”

The announcement is likely to raise some eyebrows because CES was an in-person event this year and (as of this writing) GDC is scheduled to be in-person. However, it seems that the ESA is nervous about Omicron and other potential COVID variants. And because they don’t know what the COVID landscape will look like in summer when E3 usually takes place, they decided to play it safe with this event which traditionally brings around 50,000 industry pros and 15,000 hardcore gaming fans under one roof.