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The ESA announced that E3 is dead, again, but it seems like the annual video games showcase might actually be gone for good this time. The news comes after ReedPop, an events company the ESA partnered with to make E3 happen, dropped the showcase and ended the partnership without offering a statement as to why.
The ESA posted a brief, rather abrupt message on Twitter and the event website
“After more than two decades of E3, each one bigger than the last, the time has come to say goodbye,” the statement reads. “Thanks for the memories.”
That was it. While the ESA didn’t elaborate on the reasons behind the decision, the convention’s decline comes as little surprise. Publishers such as Nintendo began hosting their own showcases to communicate directly with audiences outside of E3, a move that others, including PlayStation and Xbox, adopted during COVID-19 lockdowns when in-person conventions were impossible to hold.
— E3 (@E3) December 12, 2023
The ESA tried reviving the showcase with a digital event, with middling success. Not only did it fail to reach the same heights, but major publishers such as Sega chose Geoff Keighley’s Summer Game Fest to air their announcements, leaving digital E3 with a mismatched assortment of reveals. The organization planned for another in-person showcase in 2023, but after Ubisoft and others backed out to host their own events, that, too, ended up falling by the wayside.
Whether this is truly the end or just another extended postponement remains to be seen, but even if the ESA manages to find another partner to host E3 with, it seems like the broader industry has already moved on.
Written by Josh Broadwell on behalf of GLHF