In a statement on Twitter, iam8bit announces the end of its collaboration with the ESA on E3 2020’s “revolutionary” new show floor experience.
Following the effective cancellation of this year’s GDC, all eyes have turned to the next major event in the gaming calendar: E3 2020.
With regards to COVID-19 – the reason for GDC’s “postponement“, along with several other tech events – E3 2020 is still (at the time of writing) going ahead. The ESA issued a statement earlier this week stating that it was “monitoring and evaluating the situation daily” but right now, E3 has other concerns.
After the inadvertent doxxing of its media attendees last year, Sony’s second year of non-attendance, the leaking of its influencer-focused show floor strategy, Geoff Keighley’s withdrawal from the E3 Coliseum show, and the looming threat of a global pandemic, you’d be hard-pressed to argue that E3 isn’t in a precarious place.
Now there’s another issue to contend with: iam8bit, the specialist publisher, merchandiser and event organiser brought in as the creative director of E3 2020’s multimedia show floor experience, has resigned its position.
It’s with mixed emotions that @iam8bit has decided to resign as Creative Directors of what was to be an evolutionary #E32020 floor experience. We’ve produced hundreds of gaming + community events and it was a dream to be involved with E3. We wish the organizers the best of luck.
— iam8bit (@iam8bit) March 5, 2020
“It’s with mixed emotions that iam8bit has decided to resign as creative directors of what was to be an evolutionary E3 2020 floor experience,” begins the statement on iam8bit’s official Twitter account. “We’ve produced hundreds of gaming [and] community events and it was a dream to be involved with E3. We wish the organizers the best of luck.”
We don’t know what’s caused this latest announcement. That’s all the information we’ve been supplied by iam8bit, and the ESA is yet to issue a statement on the withdrawal.
But whatever’s going on, it’s another blow for E3 at a time when the expo is trying to both reinvent and keep itself relevant in a changing landscape.
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