E3 is not returning anytime soon
E3 is dead, and it’s not coming back for at least a few more years. According to a report from the Los Angeles City Tourism Commission, E3 won’t be back in LA in 2024 or 2025.
The news was contained in a footnote on a chart highlighting the city’s projected and actual number of hotel rooms booked for fiscal year 2022 and 2023.
Apparently, the city does not expect E3 to return in 2024 or 2025. This news seems at odds with the messaging from E3’s organizers, ReedPop and the ESA. Earlier this year, the ESA — the trade organization that runs E3 — announced it was partnering with ReedPop, the entertainment company that runs large fan conventions like New York Comic-Con and Penny Arcade Expo, to run E3 2023. After the covid-19 pandemic shuttered in-person events between 2020 and 2022, 2023 was meant to mark the in-person return of the video game industry’s biggest event of the year.
However, E3 2023 was canceled, with ReedPop global vice president of gaming Kyle Marsden-Kish stating the reason why was out of consideration that publishers wouldn’t have game demos or reels available in time. But if E3 2024 and 2025 are also canceled, it suggests there is something else preventing E3’s return or that its organizers are considering moving it out of Los Angeles.
Despite E3’s cancellation, other events have stepped up to take its place. Last week, Geoff Keighley held Summer Game Fest that included an Xbox showcase and a Starfield presentation. Earlier this month, Sony held its own event for PlayStation, showing off gameplay for Insomniac Games’ Spider-Man 2. Nintendo and Ubisoft also held their own presentations, with a weeklong event for Steam going on right now.
The press release announcing E3 2023’s cancellation hinted that ESA and ReedPop would work on future E3 events. In an email to The Verge, the ESA wrote, “ESA is currently having conversations about E3 2024 (and beyond), and no final decisions about the event have been made at this time.”
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