According to Kotaku and Protocol, the Electronic Entertainment Expo, or E3, was once the pinnacle of the video game sector where the year's greatest announcements, reveals, and interviews took place. Every major video game studio and publisher would flock to downtown Los Angeles around this time of year a decade ago to show off their biggest titles to a live and online crowd of enthusiastic fans.
The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) canceled the E3 2022 conference in March, which would have taken place this month. Over the last three years, the COVID-19 pandemic has battered this expo harder than others, but the ESA isn't ready to give up yet.
E3 Will Return Next Year
The video game conference will make a full comeback in 2023, according to a Washington Post interview with ESA president and CEO Stan Pierre-Louis.
We're excited about coming back in 2023 with both a digital and an in-person event. As much as we love these digital events, and as much as they reach people and we want that global reach, we also know that there's a really strong desire for people to convene - to be able to connect in person and see each other and talk about what makes games great.
Meanwhile, IGN noted that while the revival of E3 next year was confirmed, it was unclear whether the event would be held in person.
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What Is E3's Most Significant Challenge?
The main issue that E3 has to cope with is the growing popularity of streaming platforms. The internet has numerous advantages, one of which is the ease it can provide gaming lovers while they wait for the year's biggest announcement in the industry.
Protocol report reads: "The game industry likes to use the summer to market new products and generate hype because it helps sell games during the fall and holiday season," implying that E3 has long since become irrelevant for gaming companies.
Many companies have since embraced hybrid strategies, opting for occasional virtual events, live shows, and one-time digital game reveals to generate hype over the course of a game's development.
With its Direct presentations, which began in 2011, Nintendo arguably pioneered the trend to internet events among prominent gaming companies. Since then, a slew of other game companies have followed Nintendo's lead, the most notable being Sony, which discontinued attending E3 in 2019.
Most importantly, a combination of YouTube, Twitch, Twitter, and company blogs has made it easier than ever to interact with fans with minimal intermediaries.
Summer Game Fest
Summer Game Fest is a gaming event that has hosted some of the industry's most exciting news and announcements in recent years. Geoff Keighley stepped up to organize this event after industry staple E3 was canceled due to COVID in 2020, as per NME.
In a practical sense, the show serves as a crucial means of keeping fans informed about the world's most exciting upcoming games.
However, it's worth mentioning that the Summer Game Fest may, in the future, be added to the E3's "challenges."
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