PlayStation is skipping E3 2019.
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E3 canceled as game industry capitulates to coronavirus

  • Posted byby Dean Takahashi
  • Updated
  • 3 min

The Entertainment Software Association announced today it’s canceling the Electronic Entertainment Expo, the big game trade that takes place in June in Los Angeles.

For its 25th anniversary, the show was clobbered by the coronavirus. But it also had some other problems, as major vendors such as Sony, Electronic Arts, Blizzard, and others had already said they weren’t attending. As early as Tuesday, a number of sources said the cancellation was coming, but the ESA announced the news on Wednesday morning.

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Written by

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.