E3 is over, this time for good. The Entertainment Software Association today confirmed that the event will not take place until 2024 or any time thereafter, bringing 28 years of the video game industry’s most prolific trade event to a sudden and unceremonious end.
The demise of E3 is not entirely unexpected. The annual event, a three-day parade (with press conferences leading up to the opening of the show floor a day or two earlier), was once the culmination of showcases for the companies’ upcoming titles and consoles. However, as platforms like Twitch became more popular, game makers and publishers no longer had to rely on a trade show to make an impression. With the show’s poor attendance at what would have been the last in-person event of 2019, and the ESA’s problems with reviving the show after the pandemic, the writing is on the wall. In April, after news that the ESA was canceling the summer event again, the reason was clear: streaming killed E3.
“Thanks to streaming platforms like Twitch and YouTube, companies now have the power to deliver news to consumers in person and online simultaneously, without the need for PR firms or journalists,” I wrote at the time. “For example, Nintendo perfected this with Nintendo Direct, the series of hyped and tightly controlled pre-recorded marketing events. In the same way, [The Game Awards creator Geoff] Keighley’s [Summer Game Fest], built at a time when no one could gather safely, is envisioned as a digitally savvy event that can take place without the need for a physical presence. With gaming companies creating their own events and Keighley’s growing hold on the streaming world, E3 has become largely redundant thanks to the popularity of The Game Awards.”
ESA President and CEO Stanley Pierre-Louis said this in his comments The Washington Post announcing the end of the event, adding that while fans were invited to attend in the sunset years of E3, it was more of a business and marketing confab. Companies, he said, now have “access to consumers and business associates through various means, including their own individual showcases.”
The gaming world just doesn’t do that need E3 like before. The Game Awards and Summer Game Fest are now associated with big announcements and trailer reveals. E3 hasn’t been relevant for almost five years.
I started covering the video game industry in 2012 and attended my first E3 the following year. Back then, E3 was the pinnacle of gaming events: an all-hands-on-deck affair, with video game journalists routinely covering multiple stories a day as they ran from big hype promo events to big hype meetings with game companies. (During my freshman year, I filmed a video report in which I had a fever of 101 degrees by the end of the week.) Gamers expected this kind of reporting, and they read it with gusto.