Information reaching Kossyderrickent has it that RIP E3 trending on X as E3 is officially dead after 20 years.
RIP E3. After two decades of serving as gaming’s biggest in-person event for developers, vendors, and gamers to come together to celebrate one of the world’s biggest sources of entertainment, the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) is officially dead for good.
This has been a long time coming. After the conference was able to come back for a digital-only experience in 2021, the 2022 and 2023 conference was canceled, so the writing was already on the wall for the death of E3. Now, it’s official. As reported by The Washington Post, Stanley Pierre-Louis, president and CEO of the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), said in a statement that the conference is not coming back.
In September, ESA announced it was cancelling the 2024 event to evaluate plans for 2025 but that too was not meant to be.
After news broke of E3’s death, gamers took to social media to mourn its passing. Fans and former attendees shared their fave moments from past events, including when Xbox chief Phil Spencer announced backwards compatibility for the Xbox One, when Nintendo showed off the N64 console, and when Sony revealed the God of War trailer in 2016.
Indeed, E3 was where gamers got their first looks at epochal consoles like the Nintendo Wii, and live demos for influential titles like Half-Life.
However, in recent years, the expo fell on hard times. A mix of cancellations following the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, a slew of rival gaming events, and online showcases from gaming companies ultimately led to its demise.
