With COVID-19 raging across the globe, major gaming conventions have been canceled. Both GDC and E3 had to be canceled keeping in mind the health of the attendees. Most developers are going to be announcing their new projects through digital events from the safety of their homes. With 2020 being the final year for the PS4 and the Xbox One, the next-gen consoles are expected to be announced at these digital events. It seems like players might not need to wait too long for these announcements after all – and the reveals might be coming sooner than expected.
Industry insider ZhugeEX believes that next-gen consoles would be revealed “soon”. Apparently the next-gen console reveals will be done much earlier than others.
With E3 cancelled, a lot of the planned reveals / announcements have been moved out of that single week.
Some are now much earlier, others much later. Some still during E3 week ofc.
The first proper next gen console/games showcase is much earlier too.
— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) April 19, 2020
Judging from the nature of his comment, the reveals are likely to be as early as the first week of May – though this is purely speculation at this point. ZhugeEX also mentions that delays might happen considering the infrastructural challenges of hosting a digital event with millions of viewers. All next-gen console reveals are likely to be accompanied by a select few next-gen titles – mostly AAA’s and promising indies.
It has already been leaked that Microsoft will be holding two digital conferences this year – one for the next-gen Xbox console reveal and the other for all the game reveals, with the latter being the digital replacement for their E3 event. ZhugeEX’s words prove that there is some amount of truth in those leaks – since the console reveal is mentioned to be the “first” showcase.