The annual gaming showcase — the Electronic Entertainment Expo — better known by its acronym E3, is no more. After 25-plus years, the organization behind the event, the Entertainment Software Association, pulled the plug on E3, making the announcement on its Twitter/X accounts on Tuesday morning.
Since 1995, E3 was where industry players would showcase their latest hardware alongside developers’ upcoming titles. For three days in late spring or early summer, E3 would take over the Los Angeles Convention Center with dazzling displays, booth babes, meme source material, and hands-on demos of prospective gaming tech. Off limits to the gameplaying public, fans would have to wait weeks until the news made it into the pages of Nintendo Power, NextGen and GMR or onto web sites like IGN and GameSpot for a small glimpse at what was coming down the pipe.
Despite the prestige E3 offered in its early-to-mid years, it was not without flaws. Sony pulled out of hosting its keynote opening in 2019, the internet took away the excitement as companies like Nintendo could now easily live-stream video whenever they wished, and COVID-19 reared its ugly head by cancelling large in-person gatherings. Despite an attempt to go virtual in 2021, it proved lackluster with fans being stuck in online waiting lobbies and underwhelming content. Gamers themselves, long locked out from setting foot on the convention floor before 2015 when limited passes were made available, directed their attention to PAX and the Summer Game Fest instead. Dates for E3 in 2022 and 2023 were subsequently nixed, and with no extra lives left, it was game over.
No events are planned to replace E3 are known at this time.
Source: Twitter/X
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