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While its death throes have been drawn out, it seems E3 is officially dead – as per a message from the event’s official account posted today.
A joint statement from the Entertainment Software Association and E3 broke the news to fans, saying “After more than two decades of E3, each one bigger than the last, the time has come to say goodbye. Thanks for the memories. GGWP.” – a somewhat short, but to the point message from the event. The same message was repeated on the official website, which is now all that is shown from the once yearly staple of the gaming calendar.
E3 – or the Electronic Entertainment Expo – had been on something of a life support for some time with the final in-person event taking place back in June 2019. The global pandemic put a halt to the in-person version of the show taking place back in 2020, but there was some hope when an entirely online version of the event dubbed the Electronic Entertainment Experience took place in June of 2021 with the intention of the show returning in 2022. Alas, that was not to be, and both the online and in-person versions were cancelled for that year as well.
A final attempt at resuscitation was then undertaken by the company ReedPop, who were responsible for events such as PAX and EGX, promising to see the the show return to its former glory. In-person events were back on the menu, and it was hoped the experienced hands would be able to bring the show back. However, this latest attempt did not end up coming to pass, and E3 2023 was cancelled in March of this year as the show “did not garner the sustained interest necessary to execute it in a way that would showcase the size, strength, and impact of our industry.”
In its place, many publishers and developers opted to hold their own online conferences – and The Game Awards host Geoff Keighley organised the Summer Game Fest – a similar, mostly online focused show, that has been running in the usual E3 time slot in June since 2020. A 2024 show is already confirmed to take place from LA in 2024.
