At the end of the 1990s, teenagers looked out for summer issues of magazines at tobacconists. Joypad Or Consoles +. When the Internet barely existed, we discovered with starry eyes all the video games presented at E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo), which would arrive under the tree at the end of the year or the next. But that era is officially over: the major Los Angeles show will not have a new edition, the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) announced on Tuesday, signing the death certificate of an event in shaky health since several years.
Already losing momentum, E3 will have experienced the pandemic very badly, which had led to the cancellation of the 2020 edition. The show returned in virtual form the following year, before once again putting itself on hold, then cancel the 2023 vintageinitially scheduled for June 13 to 16.
“The right decision”
E3 suffered in particular from the disaffection of major console manufacturers and game publishers, who today often prefer to organize their own events and not dilute their communication in the context of a show where several brands are present. And in the age of the Internet and recorded presentations, the added value of large live trade shows was diminishing.
Xbox, Sony, Nintendo, and even the French publisher Ubisoft had all chosen not to go to E3 this year, even before the cancellation. To make matters worse, competing events further weakened the show’s position, notably the Summer Game Fest, organized in Los Angeles, like E3.
“It was the right decision, given the new opportunities for the industry to connect with fans and partners,” he said. Washington PostStanley Pierre-Louis, CEO of the ESA, on the E3 shutdown.
Other shows have held up better, such as Paris Games Week, Gamescom in Cologne (Germany) or the Tokyo Game Show, which all this year found attendance levels close to those they had before the pandemic.