Скачать или смотреть E3 organizers expect return to physical expos, ahead of online-only bash

(11 Jun 2021) LEAD IN:
Organizers of annual Los Angeles video game extravaganza E3 expect a return to physical expos in future years, despite a shift to online events amid the pandemic.
The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) is preparing to stage its first all-digital E3, as the coronavirus pandemic still scuppers some physical gatherings.

STORY-LINE:
Over 65,000 people attended E3 2019. But this weekend, venue the Los Angeles Convention Center, will sit silently.
Just like video gaming itself in recent years, LA's Electronic Entertainment Expo - or E3 - is headed online this week.
It's traditionally the place for games companies to tease their latest creations before they hit store shelves.
Stanley Pierre-Louis, president and CEO of organizers the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), says they made the decision some ten months ago.
"We thought through the issues of where we might be in terms of the pandemic and where governments might be, where travel might be, and where the exhibitors might be. And probably ten months out, we realized that trying to assess where the world was going to be that far out, given all the changes we were seeing every day, meant that going digital would be the most secure way to ensure that an E3 could occur," he says.
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 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 totalled a record 480.4 billion yen ($4.4 billion), up from 258.6 billion yen the year before.
A December 2020 study by the ESA found the U.S. video game industry generated $90.3 billion in 2019. Over 214 million Americans play video games, it said.
"We have seen a trend over several years, probably more than a decade, of industry growth, and I think there was a surge in 2020 that may or may not be replicated in 2021, but that trend of growth will likely continue," says Pierre-Louis.
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.
Sony and Electronic Arts, among others, had said they were not planning to exhibit at 2020's event, even before the ESA announced they were cancelling the event due to the coronavirus pandemic in March 2020.
Pierre-Louis says the ESA expects a return to physical E3 expos in future years but will have to take on lessons learned throughout the pandemic.
"We anticipate physical E3s moving forward, but we want to make sure that we do it in a way that takes into account what we've learned in digital and also monitors what's going on in the world to ensure that we can do it in ways that ensures the safety of all those who want to attend," he says.
The online version of E3 begins on Saturday, June 12 and runs till Tuesday, June 15.

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