“We know the entire industry, players and creators alike, have a lot of passion for E3,” said Entertaiment Sofware Association president Stanley Pierre-Louis told The Washington Post. “We share that passion. We know it’s difficult to say goodbye to such a beloved event, but it’s the right thing to do given the new opportunities our industry has to reach fans and partners.”
It’s truly an end of an era when the largest video game celebration event closes its doors. The Electronic Entertainment Expo website now features a single page with the goodbye message: “After more than two decades of E3, each one bigger than the last, the time has come to say goodbye. Thanks for the memories.”
The Electronic Entertainment Expo has been on the scene dating back to it’s first show in 1995. Since then, E3 has been a staple in the gaming community as THE show to attend for the latest in upcoming new games & hardware between companies like Nintendo, Sega, Sony, Microsoft, etc. Since 2018, the show began to decline as Sony Interactive Entertainment decided to pull out of the event, which started the chain reaction of other exhibitors no longer attending. Nintendo was the first company to do this to start their online showing with their Nintendo Direct video showcase. In 2020, Longtime collaborator and journalist Geoff Keighley announced that he would no longer be working for the show, and has since gone off and created his own seperate event with Summer Game Fest.
The final in-person E3 show was held in 2019, which allowed attendance by the general public. While there were plans for a 2020 event, it was canceled due to COVID-19 concerns. A digital-only even twas held in 2021. And while a digital-only event was planned for 2022, that too was canceled. A revamped event was planned for 2023 but, that too was canceled.
