E3 has been permanently cancelled and the show will never return, says ESA CEO Stanley Pierre-Louis in an interview with The Washington Post. The E3 convention was the gaming industry’s annual gathering and at one time, was the biggest event of its kind in the industry. It catered mostly to journalists, studios, and publishers, and served as a way to showcase upcoming games for all platforms. Over the span of a week, you would get new trailers, announcements, and surprise launches.
It was a big to-do that many gamers looked forward to every year. However, more and more of the industry began shifting to hosting their own online events. Because it was less expensive and announcements could be directed right at gamers. As opposed to media who would then write about everything for people to read. It took a while, but E3 slowly began to dwindle. Shows like Nintendo Direct, Sony’s PlayStation State of Play, and Microsoft’s Xbox Games Showcase are now the norm. Nintendo and Sony hold multiple online events throughout the year while Xbox has a big showcase annually.
Even studios have their own livestreams to announce upcoming games or changes to existing titles. Such as CD PROJEKT RED and its recent event to showcase the new Cyberpunk 2077 2.1 update.
E3 being permanently cancelled is the result of many things
While the pandemic in 2020 is thought of as being the sole reason for the demise of E3, this merely exacerbated what was already happening. E3 has been slipping for years simply due to industry changes. Individual livestream events captured more and more attention. While providing alternative avenues for companies to showcase their upcoming products. Then incidents like 2019’s E3 data leak happened. Exposing personal and sensitive information on journalists, financial analysts, and Tencent employees.
This no doubt hurt E3 and would inevitably cause mistrust in the ESA. But it wasn’t until the show was first cancelled in 2020 due to the pandemic that the bigger picture started to come into focus. E3 was dying. The show was once again cancelled in 2022 following 2021’s all-digital event, and then it was cancelled once again in 2023. While many probably suspected E3 was finally gone for good, there was no confirmation until now.
But perhaps after years of more and more companies hosting their own showcases, and a few years of event cancellations, Pierre-Louis realized it was time. “Companies now have access to consumers and to business relations through a variety of means, including their own individual showcases,” Pierre-Louis says.