This time it’s over for good. The Electronic Entertainment Expo, better known as E3, is coming to a permanent halt. “After more than two decades, (…) it is time to say goodbye,” said the organizers of this iconic American video game show in a press release published on December 12 on X.
The decision does not take anyone by surprise. The 2023 edition, which was to celebrate the return of the physical show to Los Angeles in June, had already been canceled in March, due to failure to “generate the necessary interest”, in the words of Entertainment Software Association (ESA), the organization bringing together video game publishers in the United States behind the event. The three previous editions had also been undermined due to the Covid-19 pandemic: the 2020 and 2021 editions never opened their doors, while the 2022 edition took place entirely online. “It was the right decision, given the new opportunities for the industry to connect with fans and partners,” ESA CEO Stanley Pierre-Louis told the Washington Post.
A declining interest
It has been more than a decade since this show, inaugurated in 1995 and intended for professionals, attracted less and less interest from the giants of the sector. The most powerful console manufacturers and publishers today prefer to reach the public by organizing their own meetings: online conferences such as Nintendo Direct, Sony’s State of Play, Microsoft’s Xbox Showcase or Ubisoft Forward have contributed to weakening the aura of E3.
Other major events have also come to compete head-on with E3. This is the case of Summer Game Fest, launched online after the cancellation of E3 2020 by Canadian Geoff Keighley, also behind the Game Awards. Other conferences have spread across the Internet and won over new audiences, for example the PC Gaming Show (initiated by the press group that owns the PC Gamer magazine), the Wholesome Direct (dedicated to relaxing games) or the Guerrilla Collective ( focused on the independent video game scene).
Physical events dedicated to video games are not dead, however. With the disappearance of E3, the title of most influential show in the sector now goes to Gamescom in Cologne, Germany, which brings together both professionals and many fans. In 2023, 320,000 people visited the North Rhine-Westphalian city for this occasion. In France, Paris Games Week brought together more than 180,000 people in November.
