The fact that there wasn’t an E3 in 2023 came as a shock to thousands of gamers worldwide. E3 was, for many years, the biggest event of the year when it came to gaming.
Through the years, it became ritualistic in a sense. Everyone would be waiting for June to come to finally get a glimpse of the upcoming games that were currently in development. So, when the announcement was made that there would be no E3 in 2023, it sent shockwaves through the gaming community worldwide.
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Key Takeaways for Why Wasn’t There an E3 in 2023
- E3 was canceled in 2023 because of a lack of support from developers and publishers
- The Coronavirus pandemic is the main cause for E3’s slow decline
- Summer Game Fest took over the ad hoc role of E3 in 2023. However, it’s uncertain if this will remain the case in the future.
The Short Answer
It’s a bit difficult to summarize shortly why E3 got canceled in 2023, but it mainly comes down to a lack of interest and fallen-through arrangements with E3’s partners. This turn of events ultimately came as a result of the Covid pandemic.
The world practically came to a standstill in 2019, as many industries tried to rapidly adapt to the new circumstances we were faced with. This was also true for the gaming industry. And while the broader industry as a whole received a boost, events and event organizers received a massive blow.
The Long Answer
There is an elephant in the room that needs to be discussed. This elephant is the Summer Game Fest. Summer Game Fest took over the ad hoc role of “upcoming games presented” from E3 in 2023. The reason for that mainly comes down to the fact that they managed to acquire partnerships faster than E3 could.
In reality, video game events are really just 90% business, with only the remaining 10% being allocated to the gaming part. To organize an event like E3, you need to prepare a full year in advance, and sometimes even multiple years in advance.
The hardest part is to gather partners, i.e. publishers and developers willing to present the games they are currently working on. However, to acquire partners, they must first trust you. That part wasn’t a problem for E3 in the past, as they’d had years of successful events behind them.
However… That was years ago. In the last few years, E3 has had a string of problems. The 2020 event was outright canceled because of the pandemic. The 2021 event was hosted online and it barely manage to gather a crowd.
The last straw was in 2022. Even though there were plans for a full in-person event following the pandemic, it ultimately got canceled as well. So, by 2023, the once beloved convention had been reduced to a laughing stock.
Does This Mean the End of E3?
That’s hard to say. We’ll just have to wait till 2024 to get the answer to that question. One thing’s for sure though. E3 is definitely not what it used to be. From the most respected and beloved gaming event of the year. To being nothing more than a husk of its former self in 2023.
The thing that really helped E3 thrive in the past was the fact that it really had no other competitors to speak of, at least not ones on the scale of E3. But now, with the Summer Game Fest gaining the popularity it has, E3’s title of “the biggest gaming event of the year” might be usurped. We’ll just have to wait till 2024 to see.
