Posted in: Conventions, E3, Events, Games, Video Games | Tagged: e3, Electronic Entertainment Expo

The ESA Has Officially Killed Off E3

After years of trying to bring it back in some capacity, the ESA finally put an end to E3 this week in the most underwhelming way possible.

After the past few years of trying to resurrect the corpse of the Los Angeles event , the Entertainment Software Association has finally killed off E3. In true ESA fashion, the group did the bare minimum of letting people know they had decided to end the convention: by posting a notice on Twitter/X that simply said, "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"

The news honestly doesn't come as a shock to anyone. After having Sony pull out of the event in 2019 to do their own livestream events, followed by Microsoft's decision to hold all of their events at the then Microsoft Theater next door to the Los Angeles Convention Center, many people were already declaring the event dead before 2020 came around. Then the pandemic hit, causing the event to be canceled. That trend continued every year until 2023 when the organization partnered with ReedPop to revive it. But due to several complications, the deal fell apart just before they were set to hold it, and the event was once again canceled. The ESA then said they would take 2024 off and come back in 2025.

While E3 was attempting to come back, Geoff Keighley (who used to run the E3 Coliseum) split off and eventually started Summer Game Fest in 2020. That turned into a physical event for the press and content creators in 2022, harkening back to what E3 used to be before organizers made the call to allow paid ticket holders to take part in the event. A move that many say (including us) greatly impacted the charm and effectiveness of the event until its last year. With E3 failing to come back, SGF basically replaced them in the process by simply existing and holding yearly livestreams. Now that E3 is done, it looks like SGF will be the summer game convention moving forward.

Which now begs the question… do we really need a convention to happen in the middle of the Summer, in Los Angeles? Is it even necessary to hold 30 livestreams across four weeks featuring hundreds of video games? The entire reason people kept gravitating to June is because of E3 and its possible return. If E3 isn't around, and June holds no real significance for anyone anymore, wouldn't 2024 be a great time to change the way things are done? Hopefully, that's put into consideration over the next two months before everyone starts jam-packing June with so many announcements, that they just blend together and nothing ends up sticking out.

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