Enlarge / RIP to a real one. (credit: Aurich Lawson)
Update (Dec. 12, 2023): After missing four years in a row due to COVID and waning industry interest, the Entertainment Software Association formally announced a permanent end to the Electronic Entertainment Expo today.
“After more than two decades of E3, each one bigger than the last, the time has come to say goodbye,” the organization wrote. “Thanks for the memories. GGWP.”
Despite today’s formal announcement, E3’s imminent demise has been apparent for a while, even before former organizer ReedPop parted ways with the ESA in September. Let this piece, originally written when the 2023 show was cancelled in March, serve as our epitaph for an annual industry gathering that grew to be a cultural touchstone in the gaming world.
This year’s edition of the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) has been canceled. The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) and show promoter ReedPop announced late Thursday that the planned June event—which was set to be the first in-person E3 since 2019—”did not garner the sustained interest necessary” from major publishers and potential attendees to justify a massive convention.
At this point, the cancellation of the 2023 show wasn’t a huge surprise. All three major console makers had already confirmed that they wouldn’t be attending, and major publishers Ubisoft and Sega publicly abandoned the show more recently. In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, ESA president and CEO Stanley Pierre-Louis cited economic headwinds, digital marketing opportunities, and COVID-related game development timeline changes as reasons the companies backed out.
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