Earlier this year, Grant St. Clair reported that E3 was dead. Now it's official: the game industry's most sprawling and overwhelming marketing show permanently done for. It had already lost some major exhibitors before being cancelled three years in a row due to the Covid pandemic, and the trade isn't interested in reviving it. "E3 is officially dead, and so is the version of the industry it was made for," writes Kyle Orland.
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.
CES, on the other hand, seems to have recovered fully and expects to see 130,000 visitors in Vegas next month.
The last game industry expo I enjoyed was one held at Earl's Court in London in 1989.
