It’s game over for E3 as the ESA declares the tradeshow officially dead

December 12, 2023 10:30 AM

Time to scramble around and tweak any awards that mention the death of E3 as a possibility as it’s now a certainty: The Entertainment Software Association has officially declared the end of an era.

“After more than two decades of E3, each one bigger than the last, the time has come to say goodbye,” the ESA says on the show’s official website. “Thanks for the memories.”

Readers will likely recall that following the cancelation of E3 this past summer, many people declared the show fully dead, in spite of the ESA’s insistence that it was still discussing the 2024 and 2025 shows. Had it gone on as planned, 2023’s E3 would’ve been the first in-person show since 2019, though even the 2022 digital show was canceled. But E3 was struggling even before the pandemic brought in-person tradeshows to their knees; the industry’s corporate behemoths pulled out in favor of running their own shows as event competitors – like Geoff Keighley’s Summer Game Fest – began staging separate spectacles.

“We know the entire industry, players and creators alike have a lot of passion for E3. We share that passion,” ESA president Stanley Pierre-Louis told WAPO. “We know it’s difficult to say goodbye to such a beloved event, but it’s the right thing to do given the new opportunities our industry has to reach fans and partners.”