E3 is dead. For good, apparently.
“After more than twenty years of E3, each bigger than the last, it’s time to say goodbye,” the official E3 account said Posted on X, formerly known as Twitter. “Thanks for the memories.”
Tweet may have been deleted
E3’s post received more than 100,000 likes and 38,000 reposts on the platform within 3 hours.
The Entertainment Software Association, the nonprofit video game trade organization that managed E3, also posted its own statement on its X account.
“After more than twenty years of serving as a central showcase for the video game industry, ESA has decided to end E3,” wrote the Entertainment Software Association on its official account on X, formerly Twitter.
The ESA has shared a link to the WashingtonPost story that broke the news and quoted the organization’s president and CEO Stanley Pierre-Louis.
“ESA remains focused on advocating for ESA member companies and the industry workforce, who are making a positive cultural and economic impact every day,” the statement continued.
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The Electronic Entertainment Expo, better known as E3, was once the largest video game expo of its kind, starting with the first event in 1995. The event was known as the premier gathering for the industry and was often the place where the biggest news of the year was unveiled. or new games made their debut. The expo ran annually until 2019, the year it held its last in-person event. E3 2020 would be canceled in June of that year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2021, E3 returned as an online-only event due to ongoing concerns surrounding COVID-19. E3 was planning to hold another in-person event in 2022, but that was quickly canceled due to the pandemic and unfortunately no online event was planned that year.
E3 announced it would return in 2023 and the expo partnered with ReedPop, the pop culture event planning group behind other hugely successful conventions like New York Comic Con and PAX. However, months before the planned June 2023 event, E3 announced it canceled the event again. This time, however, it wasn’t because of COVID-19, but lack of interest from the industry.
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The major video game companies like Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft all planned to skip E3 2023 and host their own events. It seems that in the years when E3 was unable to host the usual showcase, these companies found that organizing their own online events, focusing on their own lineups, was more fruitful.
In his statement to the Washington Post, ESA’s Pierre-Louis explained that the industry had evolved to the point where E3 was simply no longer a necessity.
“We know it is difficult to say goodbye to such a beloved event, but it is the right thing to do given the new opportunities our industry has to reach fans and partners,” he said.