E3 2022 will not be face-to-face due to COVID-19 and its “potential impact on the safety” of attendees

One more year, and for the third time in a row, E3 2022 will not be a face-to-face event. This has been confirmed by the ESA (Entertainment Software Association) in a brief release published on its official website. Said statement reads as follows:

“Due to the continuing health risks surrounding COVID-19 and its potential impact on exhibitor and attendee safety, 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. . “

Since the ESA they have not confirmed whether, like last year, the event will take place fully digital. What’s more, E3 2022, which is one of the most important events in the world of video games, does not yet have official dates. The plan was to resume the physical event, something that would make sense being 2022 a year full of important launches, but the rebound in COVID-19 cases has broken all the schemes.

An E3 with an uncertain future

At the moment, the little we know about E3 2022 is that it will not have a physical event. Beyond that, his future is uncertain. It’s funny that ESA itself has not confirmed in the statement that the event will take place digitally. Instead, the association said that “we remain incredibly excited about the future of E3 and look forward to announcing more details soon,” but without further details.

However, and according to IGN, which cites a subsequent communication with ESA, as of today it cannot be confirmed whether or not there will be a digital event instead of a physical one, such as happened in 2021. As they point out from VidaExtraWhether or not there is a digital event will depend on the exhibitors, see Microsoft, Nintendo, Bandai Namco, Activion or Ubisoft, among others.

As if this were not enough, Geoff Keighly has announced the Summer Fest 2022 in collaboration with Prime Gaming. It is a digital event and parallel to E3 that normally serves as a prelude to large announcements. It still does not have an official date, but we do know that it will be held and that it will be online. We will have to wait to see what the future holds for E3 2022 and what ESA will do to adapt to current circumstances.

The MWC 2022, for now, maintains its face-to-face format

Normally, E3 usually takes place in June, so it is striking that ESA has taken so little time to announce its absence. This movement by ESA raises the following question: if E3 2022, which is an event in summer, is not going to be face-to-face, is it?what will happen to those events that are going to take place soon?

CES 2022, without going any further, has been in mixed format and for fewer days. The Las Vegas fair was scheduled to end on Saturday, January 8, but will finally come to an end on January 7. This decision was adopted “as an additional measure to the current health protocols.” To this we must add the drip of dropouts from multinationals such as BMW, Intel, AMD, GM, Google, T-Mobile, Amazon, Microsoft or Meta. In any case, the organization claims to have gathered 2,200 exhibitors.

The closest major event on the horizon is the MWC 2022. In 2020 the event was canceled and last year it was held in June (usually in the first quarter of the year) in a blended way. In this event, companies such as Samsung, Xiaomi, Sony, Nvidia, TCL, LG, Nokia, Lenovo, Google, Amazon and Qualcomm were absent, in others. This year it is scheduled to run from February 28 to March 3 and, for now, the event seems to be face-to-face.

In fact, we know that it will be necessary to provide a digital certificate to enter and wear a FFP2 mask. In GSMA words:

“To enter the venue, staff, workers, exhibitors, visitors, suppliers and partners will have to upload the documentation that certifies their vaccination status, a recovery certificate or a negative COVID test through the system of registration or the MWC App […] FFP2 masks will be needed again, occupancy will be controlled, ventilation will be improved and cleanliness and sanitation will be increased ”.