Daily Briefing: Monday 1st March

New documents claim E3 2021 live event has been cancelled, unsurprisingly

A new report published by the Board of Los Angeles Convention and Tourism Development Commission (what a name) has listed E3 2021 as a "cancelled live event", and that the Board are instead "working" on a 2022 and 2023 license for E3.

• While a live E3 being cancelled is entirely unsurprising in the modern climate, it hasn't actually been confirmed by show organisers just yet. The show's cancellation would line up with recent rumblings of another all-digital show for June, but apparently plans for this aren't even finalised for this yet so honestly who knows.

Google apparently spent "tens of millions of dollars" bringing big games to Stadia

That's according to a new report from Bloomberg which, having spoken to the usual "familiar with the matter" anonymous sources, managed to drop some actual numbers. Google reportedly paid Ubisoft $20m to port Assassins Creed Odyssey and The Division, while Take Two Interactive were "raking it in" for ports of Red Dead Redemption 2 and NBA 2K20.

• We always knew Stadia was a money game when it came to exclusives and big releases, but some of these numbers are pretty wild - though they do give a bit more of an indication as to why Google no longer view internal Stadia development as a worthwhile pursuit.

Xbox marketing boss shoots down rumours of Elden Ring news

Last week speculation emerged that Microsoft were planning to hold a Xbox event in the coming weeks and Elden Ring fans immediately got their hopes up. They were soon dashed, however, as Xbox marketing boss Aaron Greenburg took to Twitter to confirm that there's "nothing coming soon" for an event of that calibre.

• Another day, another batch of Elden Ring reveal rumours. The news is coming, but it's hard to predict when. VentureBeat's Jeff Grubb has suggested that it's coming with the next few weeks (which didn't help the Xbox event hype), while Imran Khan has suggested that FromSoftware and Bandai Namco will just drop the trailer when the time comes.

Sinking City devs say not to buy its new Steam version

The Lovecraft-inspired detective title returned to Steam over the weekend after quite a lengthy absence, but developer Frogwares has advised fans not to buy it - claiming that the version on Steam was not made by not made by them and as such they "do not recommend the purchase" on Steam.

• This is just the latest development in an ongoing royalties dispute between Frogwares and publisher Nacon. The publisher are likely responsible for the game's return to Steam but Frogwares evidently aren't happy, even managing to slip their "do not buy this" message into an official release note on the Sinking City Steam page. This very much isn't over.