The Electronic Entertainment Expo, also known as E3, is no longer taking place.
The live trade expo for video game publishers and hardware developers was once the most anticipated event in gaming, but it suffered from a lack of public and industry interest, as well as safety concerns during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“After more than two decades of serving as a central showcase for the video game industry, ESA has decided to end E3,” the Electronic Software Association said in a statement uploaded to X on Tuesday morning.
Though the general public was allowed to attend near the end of its run, E3 was originally intended for publishers, developers, and hardware makers to display new products and technologies to merchants, other industry people, and the press.
From its start until its final in-person event in 2019, E3 was held at the Los Angeles Convention Center, with stops in Atlanta in 1997 and 1998 and a 2007 show at the Santa Monica Airport’s Barker Hangar.
Due to the COVID-19 epidemic, the 2020 event was canceled, and the 2021 event was fully online. E3 2022 was similarly canceled, owing in part to the epidemic, but also to the expanding number of game publishers hosting their own online showcases, such as Sony’s “State of Play” event and Nintendo Direct.
A 2023 expo was planned, but it was canceled in March after larger companies like Microsoft and Nintendo stated they would not be there, casting further doubt on the event’s future.
While the conference struggled to regain its previous grandeur, other gaming events such as the Video Game Awards, Summer Games Fest, and Tribeca Games Spotlight were able to attract gamers’ interest. Even a scaled-down CES has had demonstrations for virtual reality games, such as Sony’s in 2022.
Attendance at various events has increased when immunizations became more widely available and disease fears dissipated. Despite difficulties with attendance in 2022, CES announced that its 2023 event drew more than 117,000 in-person guests, a 70% increase.
According to data supplied by each group, popular exhibits within respective industries such as the mobile communications industry’s World Mobile Congress, the Chicago Auto Show, and the National Retail Federation’s Big Show all received greater attendance compared to the previous year.
Apple, Amazon, and Chevrolet continue to attend these exhibitions, demonstrating that these corporations still perceive value in attending.
“Most merchants consider trade exhibitions to be worthwhile. They provide new ideas and allow shops to network and grow. Many things, such as product demonstrations, should ideally be done in person, and trade exhibitions are an excellent venue for this,” said Neil Saunders, retail analyst and managing director at GlobalData Retail.
However, when compared to 2019, the last full year before the COVID epidemic, the numbers for various incidents are mixed.
The CES 2023 event fell short of the over 180,000 who went in 2019, and the WMC’s 88,500 attendees in 2023 fell far short of the over 109,000 who came in 2019. Meanwhile, the Utility Expo, which caters to utility workers and building builders, had a record number of attendees in 2023.
“Following the disruption of Covid, there was enormous pent-up demand to get back to in-person networking and meet-ups,” Saunders said in a statement. “Everyone had Zoom fatigue and wanted to meet in the real world.”
