The E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo) is the most important video game fair in the world that, until 2019 (except for two editions), had been held without interruption since the second half of the 90s. First in Atlanta and then in Los Angeles. It was in those appointments that during every day that it opened its doors, gamers were learning important news about those video games that they were going to enjoy in the following years, with presentations and demos that have already gone down in history.
The sunset of a mythical fair
The last E3 we have in memory is 2019 because in 2020, for reasons that you all surely remember related to the pandemic, the organizers decided to cancel it, but not before making a feint about adapting it to the new times with an online format that, unfortunately, did not have anywhere near the same impact as the one we had experienced in the last 20 years. But do not think that only the coronavirus and this digital transformation is the main reason for this cancellation, there are many other reasons behind it. Behold.
declining relevance
In recent years some key companies have changed their communication strategy when they want to contact their fans directly. Nintendo was the first, with those Direct that now everyone associates with the moment in which the Japanese announce news to us, although over the years others have joined that same strategy. Who? Indeed! Sony.
For a few years now, Sony does not wait for an E3 to show news and resorts to his State of Play where he updates us on the important events that take place within the PlayStation ecosystem. Why show the design of the new PS3 at E5 (as you did with PS3, for example) if you can do it at your own digital event? Moreover, already in one of the latest editions of the Los Angeles fair they announced that they would not be in person and that was, how to say it, practically signing the death certificate of the event because without the cookies… things get complicated.
show vs business
In 2021 it became clear that a digital E3 has nothing to do with a face-to-face one. Canned conferences that are launched on YouTube every day for an hour are very good for the general public, for gamers from all over the world, but not for professionals in the sector. The fair, let's not forget, was not originally created for players to attend in person or from home with online broadcasts, but rather a purely business meeting attended by hundreds of workers from developer and distributor companies from all over the world. world, a time when many agreements are closed that will later condition many of the products we buy in stores.
Without that area of the business, the existence of E3 ceases to make sense, much to the chagrin of the gamers who long for that part of the showcase with which they have endowed the fair in the last 20 years. The halls of the Los Angeles Convention Center are, at their best, a boisterous rush of people going from meeting to meeting discussing numbers, prices, commissions and new ideas that are certified with deals that serve, for example, to support the new project of a small independent studio.
Will E3 return?
ESA, which organizes the event, talks about a truce in 2022 to return stronger in 2023. If this is true, do not doubt that it is due to an intention to propose a new format where that part of the show of the classic Microsoft, Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, etc. conferences has a place, with the other leg of the business, which continues to be mandatory for the pillars of the industry to continue to establish themselves. Although if Nintendo and Sony do not reconsider going back... things seem complicated.