Microsoft, Nintendo Ready Game Announcements for Subdued, Virtual E3

For gamers, the annual E3 video game showcase in Los Angeles is usually like Christmas in summertime. While this year's digital-only festivities will be far more muted, the industry is readying a raft of new releases aimed at building on a pandemic-fueled boom.

Ubisoft Entertainment SA plans to showcase a new Far Cry game and reveal future content for the recent blockbuster Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. Microsoft Corp. will lay out what’s next in store for the Xbox console, including updates on Halo Infinite, and Nintendo Co. will reveal titles coming to its Switch portable gaming device this year. Fans will be on the lookout for the “megatons” — unexpected, exciting news about devices or games that will be the talk of the show.

Industry giants have spent months preparing for the event, producing trailers and demos designed to make an impact on a viewership that’s expected to be in the millions. Video games were one of the runaway success stories of the pandemic as people hunkered down at home and whiled away lockdown hours tending to their islands on Animal Crossing, ousting imposters in Among Us or surviving the zombie outbreak in The Last of Us Part II. Revenue from video games soared 20% in 2020 to nearly $180 billion, according to market intelligence firm IDC.

As the global economy begins to open up and people are venturing off their couches more, the big gaming companies will use the opportunity next week to ensure those pandemic habits prove hard to break. They’ll face a higher bar in this unusual year. The global event, which drew more than 66,000 people in 2019, was cancelled in 2020 during the Covid-19 outbreak and will return online only this year from June 12-15. All of the conferences will be pre-recorded, allowing game companies to avoid potentially embarrassing flubs, but also sacrificing the energy of a live crowd and the raucous applause that usually accompanies announcements at big-name presentations. Fans and developers won’t be able to mingle, trade ideas or play new games. And, since some games have already been pushed back this year, such as Sony’s God of War and Warner Bros.’ Hogwarts Legacy, publishers may be hesitant to show games they know may not see the light of day until 2022 or beyond.

This year’s show “may be a little disappointing” in comparison to previous events, Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Matthew Kanterman wrote in a recent note, but “it could still help solidify our view that the gaming sector can build on 2020's outsized growth and sustain expansion from a larger user and spending base.”