E3, North America's most high-profile consumer video game show, has been canceled due to the Covid-19 coronavirus outbreak.

ESA is held later in the year than GDC and other events, and organizers had hoped that June would be enough time for the worst of the crisis to pass. However, the show was hit hard when Los Angeles, where E3 is held, declared a state of emergency in March.

"In response to the growing and overwhelming concern over the Covid-19 virus, we felt this was the best course of action in this unprecedented global situation," the ESA said in a statement to Gamespot. 'We are very disappointed that we will not be able to host this event for our fans and supporters. However, based on the information we have received today, we know that this is the right decision."

Industry veteran Geoff Keighley, creator and emcee of the E3 Coliseum, announced in February that he would not be attending the show, and production company iam8bit, which announced in January that it was working with ESA to "revitalize" E3, has also withdrawn its services.

ESA said it would contact exhibitors and attendees about full reimbursement and that it was "exploring options with our members to coordinate an online experience to showcase industry announcements and news in June 2020" instead of E3.

E3 is the third major North American game show to be canceled due to coronavirus concerns: the Game Developers Conference was also "postponed" in February for the same reason, and SXSW, which hosts a large annual game expo, was canceled in March.

Updates on industry-related coronaviruses can be found here; for more information on Covid-19 coronavirus, see the U.S. Centers for Disease Control for North American updates, the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control, or the World Health Organization.