The coronavirus pandemic first took E3 off the board a few weeks ago, leaving the decision to hold digital game events up to each individual game publisher that would have otherwise attended. Now we know Bethesda fans won’t be getting an E3 replacement this year, as the publisher says it no longer has plans for even a digital showcase for June. Bethesda’s head of marketing, Pete Hines, has confirmed the company has been hit particularly hard but still plans to share more on upcoming releases “in the coming months.”
Given the many challenges we're facing due to the pandemic, we will not host a digital Showcase in June. We have lots of exciting things to share about our games and look forward to telling you more in the coming months.
— Pete Hines (@DCDeacon) April 1, 2020
Some of the projects in the pipeline (that we know about) include The Elder Scrolls VI, Starfield, Ghostwire: Tokyo, and Deathloop. While an E3 presentation likely would have only showcased teaser trailers at most for The Elder Scrolls VI and Starfield, deeper details on both Ghostwire: Tokyo and Deathloop would have been featured. Bethesda just launched Doom Eternal as well, so a digital event could have provided an opportunity to see future content planned for that game, too. However, with the coronavirus pandemic escalating every day, it is possible release schedules may have been pushed back.
Meanwhile, Ubisoft and Microsoft have already confirmed that they are exploring options to have digital events now with E3 canceled. As events unfold over the next few months, more publishers will inform us of what to expect for summer announcements.
