Скачать или смотреть Pandemic forces annual E3 gaming show online

(11 Jun 2021) FOR CLEAN VERSION SEE STORY NUMBER: 4329969

Just like video gaming itself in recent years, LA's Electronic Entertainment Expo - or E3 - is headed online this week.
That means the expo's traditional venue - the Los Angeles Convention Center - sits silently. Over 65,000 visitors attended the 2019 bash.
Following other annual tech gatherings, including Las Vegas' CES, E3 is making the shift to online, including livestreamed presentations and talks.
It's traditionally the place for games companies to tease their latest creations before they hit store shelves.
"This year, E3 is entirely online, ostensibly because of the pandemic, but in large part we're seeing a massive pivot to mostly livestreams for video game coverage," says Mashable entertainment reporter Alison Foreman.
"We're going to be all online, instead of in the convention center for the first time this year. And that promises to be a really different experience."
Gamers are chomping at the bit for new titles on the latest next-generation game consoles, launched last Christmas - the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5.
Both have seen strong sales, but supply has been stunted by a global shortage of computer chips.
There's high anticipation for news on "Halo Infinite", the latest in the sci-fi shooter series.
Originally intended to be a launch title for Microsoft's new Xbox Series X, in August, developers 343 Industries delayed the title till 2021.
"There's a big shortage in video game chip development, so the question of whether or not you'll be able to actually get a new console with some exclusive is really up in the air," says Foreman.
"There are big, big, big releases that are getting discussed, but whether or not they go hand-in-hand with new console releases is kind of still TBD. We're not really sure what's going on with all of that because of the manufacturing hold ups."
Gaming has seen strong growth amid the pandemic.
In April, Sony reported record earnings of $11 billion for the fiscal year ending in March, boosted by an eight-fold increase in fourth-quarter profit as people stuck at home during the coronavirus pandemic and turned to the company's video games.
Similarly, Nintendo Co.'s profit for the fiscal year jumped 86 percent on healthy sales of its Switch handheld console.
Annual profits for the Japanese maker of Super Mario and Pokémon games totaled a record 480.4 billion yen ($4.4 billion), up from 258.6 billion yen the year before.
"In a lot of ways, this all makes sense. What is going to be interesting this year is that with the video game industry now having released the new PlayStation and the new Xbox, they're really trying to kind of figure out where do they go from here?" says Ian Sherr, editor at large at CNET.
E3, held annually in Los Angeles since 1995, was facing trouble before the pandemic, with a host of companies either skipping the fair or staging their own events nearby.

Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork
Twitter:   / ap_archive  
Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​
Instagram:   / apnews  


You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...