Bethesda Won't Hold a Digital Event in June to Replace E3 Showcase

Many companies have opted to hold a digital event to make up for the cancellation of E3 that's now left a void for gaming news in the summer, but Bethesda won't be among the companies that do so. Bethesda's senior vice president of marketing and communications, Pete Hines, tweeted this week to announced that the company will not be holding a digital showcase in June because of complications caused by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Hines promised that Bethesda still has plenty of exciting announcements to share about its games, but it looks like players will have to wait a bit longer to hear that info.

Hines shared the message with his followers via Twitter where he announced Bethesda's decision to not hold a digital showcase in June. The timing of the announcement had people wondering if it was actually true given that the info was shared on April Fools' Day, but it looks like this announcement is the real deal.

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

Digital showcases of the games publishers and developers had planned for 2020 and beyond quickly became the alternative to E3 2020 after the ESA announced that it'd be canceling this year's event. Some companies like Nintendo held their showcases digitally in the first place, and others like Microsoft have already committed to showing off their reveals and announcements digitally.

The challenges from the coronavirus pandemic which have forced Bethesda out of holding a digital showcase are the latest way that the coronavirus has negatively impacted the company. QuakeCon 2020, the annual event held by Bethesda Softworks and id Software, was planned to take place in August but was canceled this week as an early precaution by Bethesda who said it "felt wrong to be talking about a gathering when gathering is the last thing any of us should be doing right now." Fallout 76's Wastelanders update, the big release coming to the game that's set to add NPCs and much more, was also pushed back a week because of the coronavirus.