E3: World's biggest gaming conference cancelled due to coronavirus

Nintendo co-Representative Director and Creative Fellow Shigeru Miyamoto (L) and Ubisoft Co-founder and CEO Yves Guillemot pose together on stage during the Ubisoft E3 conference at the Orpheum Theater on June 12, 2017 in Los Angeles, California (Christian Petersen/Getty Images)

E3, the world's biggest gaming conference, is cancelled.

The decision was made to help protect the "health and safety" of the gaming industry amid the outbreak of coronavirus, organisers the Entertainment Software Association said.

"Following increased and overwhelming concerns about the COVID-19 virus, we felt this was the best way to proceed during such an unprecedented global situation," it said in a statement. "We are very disappointed that we are unable to hold this event for our fans and supporters. But we know it’s the right decision based on the information we have today."

The organisation will look to put on an "online experience" that will allow the gaming industry to make the announcements and show the demos that would normally be the centre of the E3 event.

In the meantime, attendees will be contacted to offer refunds, the ESA said.

The conference was due to happen from 9 June to 11 June, at the Los Angeles Convention Center. Speculation had grown in recent days that it would be cancelled, as other large events across California was postponed or axed in an attempt to stem the outbreak of coronavirus.

E3 brings together some 70,000 members of the gaming industry, press and fans to announce new games and allow people to play them for the first time. It has become the world's biggest gaming conference, with the most popular games regularly using it to reveal new titles and updates.

The conference was expected to be especially packed this year since it will be the last E3 before the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X are revealed, towards the end of this year.

PlayStation had already said that it would avoid the conference, for the second time in a year, but developers were nonetheless expected to reveal games for both next-generation consoles.