This is a sign that the other shoe has slipped. The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) has cancelled the E3 gaming convention, almost three months after agreeing to make it an entirely digital event.
Since there are still concerns about the safety of COVID-19, we have already said that E3 would not be hosted in person in 2022. There will be no digital E3 exhibition in 2022, as well.
Will Powers, Razer’s PR director for the Americas, was the first to break the news. On Thursday, he tweeted that the event had been postponed.
The bad news is this. E3 will return in 2023, thanks to ESA plans announced today. In an interview with TechRadar, E3 said, “E3 will return in 2023 with a rejuvenated showcase that honours new and exciting video games and industry advances.”
According to the ESA, it plans to “dedicate all of our efforts and resources” to a “revitalised physical and digital E3 experience” next summer.
E3 has had a difficult few years. To avoid an outbreak, they cancelled the festival in 2020, hosted a successful all-digital one last year, but were forced once again to postpone in-person celebrations for 2022 due to Omicron’s rise.
However, ESA has taken another difficult decision for the once-bustling event (66,000 people in 2019), discontinuing the digital experience as well.
Gamers who consider the event as more than simply an industry trade fair may find it difficult to accept the loss of even a virtual event. When E3 cancelled this year’s in-person event, TRG’s Vic Hood wrote:
“E3 has evolved into a festival of gaming, with the media attending to report on the most anticipated games, and gamers attending to get their hands on the newest releases and connect with other gamers. I can only describe it as a gamer’s dream come true!”
The good news is that we won’t have to go without an industry gathering filled with fresh product releases. For the third year in a row, the Summer Game Fest will take place, although the date has not yet been revealed.
In the past, Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo have had worldwide showcases during the event. In the lack of an E3 this year, it should serve as a good alternative.
Even if E3 isn’t over, the ESA says it’s been through some hard spots before. This year, EA and Activision Blizzard withdrew from the exhibition, instead exhibiting at adjacent events. For one thing, interest has fluctuated throughout the time between new platform launches and significant games.
All in-person tradeshows across the world were either cancelled or converted to virtual events after E3 had recovered and was looking solid until the pandemic.
However, as of this writing, there are no updates on the ESA’s social media or news site. As a side note, the E3 Twitter account page still has an E3 2021 logo and hasn’t updated its status.
According to the official E3 website, thus it appears “In 2022, E3 Until then, take care “The fact that we’re already well into the year 2022 is not amusing at all. Welcome messages for E3 newsletter subscribers still carry “E3 2021” as a heading.