E3 2021 will run from June 12 to June 15, Nintendo and Microsoft confirmed, but not Sony yet

They’re also planning for an in person show in 2022

With all the rumors flying around, it’s entirely possible that the ESA pivoted its E3 plans multiple times these past few months. But as of today, they are committed to a free June show.

The ESA confirmed to Destructoid this morning that E3 2021 will take place from “June 12 to June 15,” with “early commitments from the following publishers: “Nintendo, Xbox, Capcom, Konami, Ubisoft, Take-Two Interactive, Warner Bros. Games and Koch Media, and more to come.” So there’s a few of the usual “press conference” suspects, minus Bethesda. Also note that Sony is again not present on this early list. Gulp!

There’s a few takeaways from this seemingly innocuous confirmation, too. The ESA reconfirms that the show will be “available to everyone for free,” which is great news as a potential last-minute decision prevented a disaster of paywalling. And there’s another thing to note from the ESA’s statement this morning, too.

“The ESA looks forward to coming back together to celebrate E3 2022 in person, in the meantime see you online this June!” Bold! Most companies said this last year too, so we’ll have to see on that. It should be fine, right? Keep that optimism: You have a heart of gold. Don’t let them take it from you.

“In the meantime see you online this June” is also a little disingenuous. Maybe from you, ESA! But the summer of packed conferences is starting up in April, and likely won’t let up until later this fall. I miss a physical E3 mostly because it allowed all of those publishers to just pack everything into a week and not spread it out across half a year of micro-streams.