Update – 23/06/23
The ESA, the organizers for E3 have released the following statements to various press outlets:
“ESA is currently having conversations about E3 2024 (and beyond), and no final decisions about the event have been made at this time.”
Reports have surfaced that E3 2024 and 2025 have both been cancelled. The reports stem from a meeting of the Los Angeles City Tourism Board.
A document containing various details of the meeting was published online and one topic of discussion was the forecast for future conventions booked within the city of Los Angeles and for the Los Angeles Convention Centre (LACC) in particular. The LACC is the traditional home of E3.
One particular document released shows details of “Citywide Convention Sales” for FY22/23 and at the foot of this document it states *Includes E3 Cancellation For 2024/2025. It certainly looks like E3 won’t be happening at the same venue at least.
Of course, the reports of E3 cancellations will not come as a surprise to many, it has been no secret that the once-coveted video gaming expo has struggled in recent years. E3 2020 was cancelled due to the global Covid 19 pandemic, the following year they held an online-only event which received a very mixed reception. E3 2022 was again also cancelled due to concerns over Covid 19 with organizers insisting that there would be a return for E3 in 2023.
In March 2023 however, it was confirmed that E3 was once again cancelled due to a lack of interest from major developers and publishers. Another attribute to the slow downfall of E3 could be the rise of the Summer Game Fest, which was created and first launched in 2020 by Geoff Keighley. Summer Game Fest was originally an online only event that was conceived to fill the void left for big summer video game announcements, due mainly to the Covid pandemic. However, from 2020-2023 it has run consecutively and it has also grown in size each year, with this year’s event even having an in-person presence in Los Angeles, just like E3 shows of old.
Another factor would of course be that big video game companies such as Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo and Ubisoft have moved to hosting their showcases digitally as opposed to paying the large sums of money it required to host their big E3 stage shows in previous years.
As stated, it will not come as a surprise to many to hear this news, however, it will most likely serve as a disappointment to most gamers, myself included. E3 season was the pinnacle point of the year for a lot of gamers when it came to video game announcements and unveilings. That said, it could be possible that we see E3 rise from the ashes again someday, like a phoenix. However, for now, it looks unlikely we’ll see a return in the near future.
