Last year's E3 was pretty much a write-off long before the Electronic Software Assosciation announced that the show would not go on in 2020. Extraordinary circumstances and saw E3 skip out on having any presence whatsoever in 2020, but this year things are a little bit different. The ESA has put together an all-digital showcase, one that has a beefy number of names attached to it, ranging from the biggest players in the industry through to smaller but no less important brands.

How is it almost June already, this is madness. Anyway, E3 is around the corner and for the first time in years it's actually shaping up to be an exciting show again! Plenty of big names will be present, and head of Xbox Game Studios head Matt Booty has confirmed that Xbox and Bethesda will host a joint conference at the event.

Adopting a digital approach this year, E3's proud daddy The Entertainment Software Association has been stocking up on partners for the event. A bunch of big names are confirmed to have something to show off, and the ESA has now confirmed that Sega, Square Enix, and Bandai Namco will be rocking up to the party as well.

Gamescom organizers originally intended to hold a hybrid event this year which would have featured both hands-on time with games in real life and streams, but that risky decision was fortunately reworked. "Even though the hybrid concept was very well received by partners, we had to recognize that GamesCom still comes too early for many companies in the industry due to the required planning reliability," Oliver Frese, COO of Koelnmasse, the German trade show organizer, said in a press release.

The last couple of years for E3 though has resulted in a show that has felt less relevant than ever before, those effects exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic and publishers instead choosing to go down the Nintendo route by offering their own online streams. This year though? E3 is—in a digital sense at least—starting to feel like the entertainment juggernaut of old.

One has to imagine that the showrunners over at Ubisoft are wondering how to incorporate that damn panda into an online only event…’

No one believed me when I said that Balan Wonderworld was a complete nightmare. But they understand. They all understand.

As it turns out, the rumours that swirled about earlier this year were accurate. Not that anyone thought E3 would actually take place in person.