The writing has been on the wall for a while now, but today brings official word: E3 is cancelled for good.
Talk about the end of an era. This morning, an exclusive report by the Washington Post revealed the ESA has completely given up on trying to revive E3:
“‘After more than two decades of hosting an event that has served as a central showcase for the U.S. and global video game industry,’ the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) has decided to bring E3 to a close.”
Soon after the article dropped, the official E3 account on Twitter posted an image confirming the news and thanking the fans:
It’s just…wild. Yes, we all pretty much saw this coming after struggling for the last few years to try and get up and running even after COVID initially shut it down in 2020. Even so, it’s a bummer to see such an institution call it quits. Love or hate it, E3 was a crucial part of the gaming industry for decades.
Summer Game Fest has stepped up over the last couple years to fill the gap, along with the big publishers regularly holding their own live-streaming showcases. So in some way, it won’t seem like much has changed. For smaller publishers and budding entertainment journalists, however, E3 served as a place you could get your foot in the door.
No matter how you look at it, an indelible part of gaming history is now gone.
