Organisers have told the L.A. Convention Center that it won’t be needed next year, but the ghost of E3 still hasn’t quite been exorcised.
It’s four years since the last Electronic Entertainment Expo and it’s now more clear than ever that it’s never coming back, at least not in its original form.
Attempts were made to revive it this year but so many publishers backed out, apparently upset at the amount of time and money it took to organise, event organiser ReedPop gave up and is now longer involved in any future plans.
Technically, E3 2024 has not been cancelled but organisers the ESA have told the L.A. Convention Center, where the event is traditionally held, that they won’t be using it next year.
You’d have to be a truly optimistic soul to imagine that anything is really going to happen next year but apparently there’s more chance that 2025 will see a revival of the event.
According to GamesIndustry.biz, which is owned by ReedPop, the ESA is planning a ‘complete reinvention’ of the show, but there’s no indication of what form that might take.
The writing was already on the wall for E3 when Sony stopped being involved in 2019, but the pandemic accelerated the problems and now publishers host their own online-only events, while Geoff Keighley’s Summer Game Fest has tried to pick up the rest of the slack.
The problem with that is that most of these events don’t feature any hands-on previews or developer interviews, so games are increasingly being released before anyone has had a chance to play them.
‘We appreciate ReedPop’s partnership over the past 14 months and support their ongoing efforts to bring industry and fans together through their various events,’ said ESA president and CEO Stanley Pierre-Louis.
‘While the reach of E3 remains unmatched in our industry, we are continuing to explore how we can evolve it to best serve the video game industry and are evaluating every aspect of the event, from format to location. We are committed to our role as a convenor for the industry and look forward to sharing news about E3 in the coming months.’
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