Gaming trade expo E3's fate is up in the air at the moment as its parent company has split with its organiser. The Entertainment Software Association (ESA), the trade association behind E3, is no longer working with event organiser ReedPop which was set to organise E3 and is also behind the PAX expo. GamesIndustry.biz reports that the ESA and ReedPop have now decided to end their multiyear deal. The annual trade event hasn’t been held in person since 2019, despite the ESA’s reported plans for a major reinvention.
E3 typically takes place annually in June at the Los Angeles Convention Center. It was cancelled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and was held online in 2021. The 2022 event was cancelled in full, but the ESA reportedly had plans to return to a full in-person convention in 2023 with ReedPop in a new format.
Read More: Summer Game Fest Will Return In June 2024 After A "Record-Setting 2023, Announces Geoff Keighley
E3 Has No Plans To Return To LA's Convention Centre, As Per Reports
“While the reach of E3 remains unmatched in our industry, we are continuing to explore how we can evolve it to best serve the video game industry and are evaluating every aspect of the event, from format to location,” ESA president and CEO Stanley Pierre-Louis said in a statement. “We are committed to our role as a convenor for the industry and look forward to sharing news about E3 in the coming months.”
The ESA was supposed to work with ReedPop for E3 this year, but companies like Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo dropped out of the show, as did Ubisoft, Sega and Tencent (owing to their solo summer events or issues with timing). The 2023 E3 was ultimately cancelled over a lack of sustained interest by companies. A report from the Los Angeles City Tourism Commission revealed that the E3 is not expected to return to LA's convention centre in 2024 or 2025, though ESA doesn’t have plans to cancel it just yet. Interestingly, some smaller in-person and media-only events have managed to fill in the gap left by E3; Summer Game Fest being one of the most noteworthy ones, besides solo flagship showcases by companies like Xbox, Ubisoft etc.
"I think E3 sort of killed itself in a way," Geoff Keighley, the host of Summer Game Fest, said back in June when asked about E3. "I understand why people say [I killed E3], but I think if anything, we created Summer Game Fest, and I built Summer Game Fest because I saw the wheels falling off the wagon of E3."