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NEWS: ESA Permanently Cancels E3 Event




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Greed1914



Joined: 28 Oct 2007
Posts: 4438
PostPosted: Tue Dec 12, 2023 12:51 pm Reply with quote
No surprise, even though it is a little sad to see. There was a time when E3 was the big thing for gaming news, but lots of factors came together to make it less-and-less relevant.

The constant gaming news cycle, and ability to reach the audience directly, meant there was no need to spend a bunch of money just to share the floor with a competitor. E3 also struggled to figure out what it wanted to be. Some years it was a trade show where you had to have the right credentials to get in. One year it leaned into that and did more presentations in hotel spaces, etc, and even the press lamented that it was boring without those expensive booths. Other times it was a trade show with days where the public could get tickets to go, as well. They never did figure out what the future of the show would look like post-Covid. Would it be digital? A hybrid? That weird influencer thing they never really defined? I suspect that the reason ReedPop got out is because they couldn't organize something without the ESA deciding what kind of show it wanted. In the time the ESA took to figure that out, other shows gained prominence, and at least one started precisely to fill that gap.


Last edited by Greed1914 on Tue Dec 12, 2023 1:49 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Bvick00



Joined: 17 Jan 2022
Posts: 37
PostPosted: Tue Dec 12, 2023 12:59 pm Reply with quote
Truely thanks for the memories,E3: the good,the bad,the cringe Rolling Eyes etc, etc. RIP!

On a more serious note, I'm happy the ESA finally grew a brain and decided to let go of E3. There's no point in clinging onto a event that has lost it's relevance and is only nowadays a subject of memes and ridicule Laughing
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varmintx



Joined: 31 Jul 2006
Posts: 1200
Location: Covington, KY
PostPosted: Tue Dec 12, 2023 1:00 pm Reply with quote
Once upon a time, E3 felt like Christmas. Now, its end means absolutely nothing to me.
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jdnation



Joined: 15 May 2007
Posts: 2001
PostPosted: Tue Dec 12, 2023 1:14 pm Reply with quote
Old E3 will always be the best of gaming times!

The new era of shorter announcements, no communication or updates from developers and the Game Awards don't hold a candle to the hype that was the best days of E3.

Sad, but what can you do...?

For me the enjoyment of gaming was all about getting excited for and following along the long years of development, knowing we'd get a best-of-the-best showing and new Hideo Kojima trailers...

Now it's less enjoyable, and I'm not into the following social media thing.

E3 proved that marketing and advertisements can be fun. Gaming companies won't be able to recreate that and while they'll continue to chug along as a result will see declines in enthusiasm and at least a slight decline in sales overall.
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Glordit



Joined: 11 Sep 2020
Posts: 479
PostPosted: Tue Dec 12, 2023 2:31 pm Reply with quote
The last nail in the coffin was when Sony, Nintendo and MS decided it was easier for them to do their own thing unrestricted and get a bunch of studios in on it.
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Custom Apex



Joined: 30 Jun 2019
Posts: 138
PostPosted: Tue Dec 12, 2023 2:51 pm Reply with quote
It's sad to see E3 gone for good but I did enjoyed it in the past during middle and high school throughout the 2000s especially the new video game reveals along with the new console and handheld introductions from the PS2 and PSP to the Wii and DS. But the good times came to an end after graduating from high school in 2010 as I get gaming news online and much up to date without waiting for the next E3 and I gotten less excited as time went on.

I did checked out the E3 2021 on YouTube and it was not the same as I remember during my childhood. Feels boring and dull, not to mention, I could have ignore it altogether and wait for the articles of each video game reveal to see any of them got my interest.

After the pandemic came around, I already knew that E3 is going to be gone forever due to lack of in-person events on some places and before COVID, the E3 magic was waning in the 2010s thanks to stuff like Nintendo Directs and State of Plays.

Seeing E3 cancelled not once but several times (2020, 2022, 2023) made it clear that E3 is no more relevant to today's gaming industry where constant gaming news dominate gamers and industry veterans' lives.

Despite all of the problems it had over the years, E3 will forever be like Christmas for gamers that inspire companies to make their own events to market their games and their systems.

And so, this is goodbye. Thank you for playing with all of us, E3!
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Custom Apex



Joined: 30 Jun 2019
Posts: 138
PostPosted: Tue Dec 12, 2023 2:54 pm Reply with quote
Glordit wrote:
The last nail in the coffin was when Sony, Nintendo and MS decided it was easier for them to do their own thing unrestricted and get a bunch of studios in on it.


Yes, without the Big 3 in Gaming, the E3 event is pretty much done for, not even the studios who worked on games for those three can help out.
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mdo7



Joined: 23 May 2007
Posts: 6259
Location: Katy, Texas, USA
PostPosted: Tue Dec 12, 2023 3:22 pm Reply with quote
I just got the news on my email newsletter this morning, and as a life-long gamer, it's so sad to see E3 has met it's demise. I'm going to miss E3 given that current technologies have probably put E3 out of business.

RIP E3 (1995-2023)
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Gem-Bug



Joined: 10 Nov 2018
Posts: 1213
PostPosted: Tue Dec 12, 2023 4:27 pm Reply with quote
It's sad to see an iconic institution like E3 finally pulling the plug, even though the writing has been on the wall for a long time now. Time's change, not necessarily in good ways, but it is what it is. I'd take a dissolved E3 over a current Game Awards ad/cringe-fest any day.

Quote:
In September, GamesIndustry.biz reported that PAX organizer ReedPop and the ESA had parted ways by a "mutual decision" and thus ReedPop would not work on future E3 events. At the time, the ESA was still planning an E3 event for 2024, but it was not planning to return to the Los Angeles Convention Center next year.


Planning in September for a(likely) Summer 2024 event sounds like they were maybe setting the bar pretty high? I know of lesser conventions that are planning like a year in advance.
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nickp1991



Joined: 29 Mar 2021
Posts: 4
PostPosted: Tue Dec 12, 2023 4:29 pm Reply with quote
E3 was a fixture of my teenage years and I have fond memories of many hours spent each year watching the coverage on G4
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AiddonValentine



Joined: 07 Aug 2006
Posts: 2213
PostPosted: Tue Dec 12, 2023 4:53 pm Reply with quote
jdnation wrote:
Old E3 will always be the best of gaming times!

The new era of shorter announcements, no communication or updates from developers and the Game Awards don't hold a candle to the hype that was the best days of E3.

Sad, but what can you do...?

For me the enjoyment of gaming was all about getting excited for and following along the long years of development, knowing we'd get a best-of-the-best showing and new Hideo Kojima trailers...

Now it's less enjoyable, and I'm not into the following social media thing.

E3 proved that marketing and advertisements can be fun. Gaming companies won't be able to recreate that and while they'll continue to chug along as a result will see declines in enthusiasm and at least a slight decline in sales overall.


Nah, even before COVID dealt the killblow the show was in an awkward, indecisive phase, unsure of being a trade show, a convention, or a hybrid. Even before that attendance was down and when Nintendo introduced the Nintendo Direct where they could just broadcast stuff concisely without having to resort to bloated, spectacle-driven pressers things got awkward. Why bother with a live show where mishaps could happen when you can just do it ahead of time, edit it, and get to the point? The big companies are not going to be affected by this, if anything it might affect the smaller ones since E3 was a decent networking event.

As for the end of it, I wouldn't be surprised if some new trade show crops up in the coming years, maybe even someone getting the E3 brand and trying to revive it, but for now E3 as it was for nearly thirty years is done. Lot of moments good, bad, and awkward, but it was still a fixture of the industry. We'll see where things go from here.
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gsilver



Joined: 04 Nov 2007
Posts: 618
PostPosted: Tue Dec 12, 2023 11:18 pm Reply with quote
I'm sure that Devolver's annual press conferences will be just fine without E3.
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MFrontier



Joined: 13 Apr 2014
Posts: 11323
PostPosted: Tue Dec 12, 2023 11:33 pm Reply with quote
An end of an era.

I always loved seeing all the game reveals and presentations that came of out of E3 shows.
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DRosencraft



Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 665
PostPosted: Wed Dec 13, 2023 1:44 am Reply with quote
E3 was to gaming what the Auto Shows are to the car industry, what CES is to the computer and technology industries. But E3 entered an awkward period where it wasn't sure what it wanted to be or how to keep the attention of the biggest names in the industry. One obvious thing they failed to do was develop or partner with an awards program - something that would bring an enduring pop every year outside the waiting between console reveals or hoping there was a big reveal on some AAA game.

But, perhaps this was all just inevitable anyway. The technology that was supposed to bring us all closer together instead enables us to silo ourselves off into smaller niches easier. E3 was a singular, concise, moment, 3 days in the summer, where the gaming community came together to share an experience. Much like we will never have a singular TV viewing experience like the golden age of television, where you could confidently say that most anyone with a TV was watching a single period of broadcasting all at the same time, the gaming industry has lost that moment of broad unified experience.

It's unfortunate and a bit sad, because there is a sense of inevitability and that there wasn't really anything to be done. The last actual events were lackluster, but there was always that hope that things would turn around and they'd reclaim their old spark. The last several years of E3 being nonexistent due to factors beyond the gaming industry certainly eases the punch of this announcement, but it's still a sad thing.
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Sheenoobuu



Joined: 17 Sep 2019
Posts: 80
PostPosted: Wed Dec 13, 2023 5:14 pm Reply with quote
I wonder if this will affect when Pax events will be held. They used to have to avoid overlapping with E3's prime time. Maybe Pax West will pretty much take over E3's spot in the year.
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