This year's upcoming E3 conference is under threat as its host city, Los Angeles, has today declared a state of emergency over the ongoing coronavirus outbreak.
Governor Gavin Newsom made the call after a California man sadly lost his life to the virus while onboard a cruise ship. The action has caused E3 event organiser Entertainment Software Association to issue a revised statement from the one shared last week, which originally noted that the show was "moving ahead full speed". Here's the new statement:
"The health and safety of our attendees, exhibitors, partners, and staff is our top priority. While the ESA continues to plan for a safe and successful E3 show June 9-11, 2020—we are monitoring and evaluating the situation daily.
Our E3 team and partners continue to monitor COVID-19 via the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO). We are actively assessing the latest information and will continue to develop measures to further reduce health risks at the show.
Again, please know that we will continue to evaluate new developments and provide updates, as needed."
At present, the show is still expected to go ahead - albeit it with safety measures in place - although it wouldn't be surprising to see this change should the situation get much worse. Numerous events around the world have already been impacted either voluntarily, like the postponement of GDC, or as a government-issued safety measure such as future sporting events across Italy.
We'll make sure to keep an eye out for more news regarding E3 2020 as the situation develops.
[source e3expo.com, via eurogamer.net]
Comments (36)
Just cancel the whole thing now, before everyone pulls out.
No....no......NOOOOOOOOOO!!!I WANT MY MARVEL’S SPIDER-MAN 2 REVEAL!!!!!!
That's it stop the world for a blown out of proportion virus.
I think its cancellation is inevitable, given the current spread of the coronavirus; it would be wise to cancel & instead hold interviews, news, previews & Direct-esque events online.
Remarkable. Let's discuss canning E3 almost 4 months before it goes up, just in case the virus is still around.
Better to do it than not I suppose.
@Haruki_NLI well... the Coronavirus has been around for at least 3 months now since patient zero. It's most probable it will be here in the next 4 months as well.
Thankfully we can all watch the Nintendo Direct from the comfort of our quarantines.
I hope not I'm planning on going to E3 this year want to book my flight soon but don't want to risk it if E3 does get cancelled
Please can everyone just relax. Seriously E3 is not for another 3 months ,and it be spring soon.
Really. They're already declaring a state of emergency? Way to fear monger, California government. That totally won't result in mass panic.
@KBuckley27 The coronavirus is only really starting to impact the U.S. Probably best not to hitch your wagon to any trip dependent on attending a large gathering of people over the next year or so.
@TheBigK It's not fear-mongering. Declaring a state of emergency helps these cities to marshal resources in order to respond to the outbreak and limit its impact on the public.
Better to be safe than sorry, in my opinion
I’m gonna go out on a limb and say concerns are growing because of coronavirus, not the fact E3 might be cancelled.
So... no direct? *SMMMAAAASH
@RazumikhinPG agreed. Getting quarantine doesnt sound so bad. I can catch up on my backlog and anime
To me, the coronavirus threat has two faces. First, the actual health threat to societies, which still remains to be determined, but I personally have no problem playing it safe.
Second is the public reaction when cases start popping up in particular regions. I live in Austin Texas, which is about to host SXSW, and there's no sign they're considering canceling it or stripping it down. I just bought $300 of non perishable groceries, not because I think it's the end of the world, but if a panic does hit, I don't want to be stuck dealing with the consequences. When hurricane Harvey hit Houston, you had to wait hours for gas on the off chance that someone would still have some. I'll use those groceries down the line either way, so what's the harm, since I actually have enough money to do that.
The severity of coronavirus (which is still a legitimate concern) goes hand in hand with taking simple preparation measures for possible reactions to 'your' town getting it. I work in service, if it does hit austin I'm screwed.
@johnvboy Can not agree more. The hysteria is beyond mesure, I'm from Brazil and we deal with far worst everyday. Corona can't hold a candle for Zika, dengue or Chikungunya and we keep living.
You guys deal with hurricanes and earthquakes, life goes on, but not with mass panic.
@Ralizah,
Well for something that's not fear-mongering it certainly creates a lot of fear and panic.
Now that Brexit has been done, we have no news, hmm, oooh someone is sick, VIRUS OUTBREAK!!!!
Sorry in my mind this whole this of totally blown out of proportion.
People die of hunger everyday, but they arent on the news. It doesn't effect us in the West but a virus, that can get us, PANIC!!
Yawn
@Bunkerneath is the virus deadly yes it is to people with weak immune systems who either has some type of medical condition,smoking also contributes to that as well,or elderly people.Not everyone will get it for sure but its something to take it seriously since nearly over 3K people dying from it since it broke out from china.
It seems a lot of people refuse to accept the severity and seriousness of this outbrake, don't start crying and bringing drama to the internet when you get infected, cause we ain't gonna really care! 💢 (not that you could anyways cause you'll be to sick slowly dying to even bother accessing the internet)
At the rate is all going, cancelling the E3 event may be for the best. If they don't cancel due to the virus then they might cancel cause everyone will be pulling out of the event, putting that into perspective best case scenario all we'll get just EA sports and that's it, but that's just me speculating, we'll find out what will happen for real soon enough as they keep updating us in what's going on with E3
@RiasGremory And how many people have died of cancer in the time? how many people have died of heart disease? How many people have been killed on the road??
Sorry but I still think it is the media making a mountain out of a mole hill.
@Bunkerneath While hoarding medical supplies, toilet paper, water, and other goods out of panic is always troublesome and causes serious issues down the supply chain, getting people overly paranoid about washing their hands and being cautious in large crowds isn't all that bad of an issue. There's a reason people are super worried about this particular strain. All it takes is one fast food or grocery store employee to not call in sick, and then an entire community is at risk. I'd say the average NintendoLife visitor is young enough to overcome the sickness without too much issue, so we won't really need to worry about dying from it. We're more at risk of spreading it those those who lack the ability to fight it off and go into kidney failure.
I don't think all public events should cancel, but gaming conventions in particular can be problematic. I've been to several cons like PAX and MAGFest where illnesses spread like wildfire. The absolute worst illness I ever had was with the "MAG flu" the day after attending MAGfest. All it takes is someone who is carrying the virus that hasn't shown symptoms yet to play Smash Bros, then everyone using the controller after them is now a carrier too.
regardless of E3 being canceled, Nintendo can give us another Nintendo direct to watch.
@Bunkerneath tell that to the people who died from this alrdy its no joke even the health experts are worried about it even though not everyone is going to get unless you wash your hands frequently and dont touch your face with dirty hands.
This was inevitable, just deciding "it's gonna happen" at this point would be a blind decision.
@Bunkerneath Can't affect us in the west? Do you even read the news? Assuming you're from the UK, there's 90 confirmed cases there.
Gotta love all the armchair doctors who say the government is overreacting. Yeah, we should totally just wait until the virus is spread through the entire population before we start taking it seriously. Never mind that every single health authority in the world is telling you unequivocally this is NOT the flu, it is a highly contagious unknown organism with unknown mortality rate and no vaccine.
Yeah, most people are going to survive this. Mosy people survive most coronaviruses. That doesn't mean we should just sit back and let it spread without taking any measures.
If cancelling E3 is warranted, I'm guessing everyone will have to make their own Direct-style videos to showcase their new games.
I trust NL will keep us posted.
@ShankyMcSpanky Sony has pulled out of E3 this year a while back anyways, so Corona or not you weren't getting that announcement
People’s overreaction to the Coronavirus is completely absurd and completely tiresome.
It’s not nearly as deadly as some folks suggest it to be and not as widespread as people claiming it to be. For gosh sake- people need to stop making mountains out of anthills and lakes over puddles...
ENOUGH ALREADY!
@Yorumi
"More cases of COVID-19 are likely to be identified in the coming days, including more cases in the United States. It’s also likely that person-to-person spread will continue to occur, including in communities in the United States. It’s likely that at some point, widespread transmission of COVID-19 in the United States will occur.
Widespread transmission of COVID-19 would translate into large numbers of people needing medical care at the same time. Schools, childcare centers, workplaces, and other places for mass gatherings may experience more absenteeism. Public health and healthcare systems may become overloaded, with elevated rates of hospitalizations and deaths. Other critical infrastructure, such as law enforcement, emergency medical services, and transportation industry may also be affected. Health care providers and hospitals may be overwhelmed. At this time, there is no vaccine to protect against COVID-19 and no medications approved to treat it. Nonpharmaceutical interventions would be the most important response strategy."
The problem is that most people don't know how to interpret medical stuff. What the CDC is saying here is that this is definitely something to take seriously. They are NOT saying it's the Apocalypse, but they aren't saying it's nothing either.
I'd rather they cancelled all the shows than risk the devs health. Obviously I don't want the public to get sick either, but, it would be tragic if something happened to Shigeru or Sakurai or someone because of this.
They should just make it entirely online this year
@Yorumi No, but let's react apppropriately to a new contagious disease that currently has no cure and kills 1 in 50 people who catch it.
@Yorumi Where are you seeing that they're downgrading anything? The number of deaths in the world is rising significantly according to the latest things I'm reading. A state of emergency was declared in the state of New York an hour ago.
Again, I'd like to reiterate that this is not Doomsday. But I'm not sure what you get out of trying to make it seem like it's just another flu season.
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