San Diego Comic-Con, E3 and Anime Expo cancel geek meetings for the second year in a row

San Diego Comic-Con has just announced that this year’s show will not continue, at least not in person. For the second time in 50 years – the first was last year – Comic-Con was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. There will still be a virtual event from 23 to 25 July, and organizers are planning a three-day face-to-face convention, tentatively scheduled for November, but they are clear that the whole move has been postponed until 2022 – and offering refunds and rollovers as appropriate.

And it’s not the only big geek meeting in California that’s not going to happen: the Los Angeles Department of Convention and Tourism has filed documents (PDF) that show that America’s biggest anime games and shows – E3 and Anime Expo — have also abandoned their personal meetings (via ResetEra and Kotaku)

E3 usually attracts more than 60,000 attendees, while Anime Expo can attract more than 100,000, so there are huge losses for tourism that the city will discuss later this week.

You see, the Entertainment Software Association that runs E3 has already hinted that it would be “transforming” its showcase, so a virtual event would not be a big surprise. Anime Expo held a successful virtual event last year that attracted 500,000 viewers, and it looks like the organizers will try this again. Neither the organizers of E3 nor Anime Expo have technically confirmed that their events will not yet take place in person, but the city would know. An ESA spokesman just reaffirms that they are “transforming” E3, and that “we will have official details very soon”.