What happened to E3?
In the run-up to E3 2019, the Electronic Entertainment Expo was generating an average of $30 million
annually.
Now, the expo has been cancelled for the fourth year in a row.
When asked whether E3 would return in 2024, ESA president Stanley Pierre-Louis gave the
following non-answer: “We're committed to providing an industry
platform for marketing and convening but we want to make sure we find that right balance
that meets the needs of the industry.
We're certainly going to be listening and ensuring whatever we want to offer meets those
needs and at that time, we will have more news to share.”
What, then, has killed the most recent incarnation of E3, and what will the expo look like when,
or if, it returns?
While disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic led to the expo’s cancellation in 2020,
E3’s problems started long before this.
The previous year, one of E3’s longest supporters, Sony, elected not to attend.
Other large companies had already begun to limit their presence at the show.
Nintendo, for example, had opted not to give presentations at E3 since 2013, in favour
of a booth on the show floor combined with Nintendo Direct presentations directly to
consumers.
The challenge that E3 has faced in recent years has come down largely to the ways the
video game industry has shifted dramatically in YouTube era.
So you could say… that we killed E3.
Well, not us.
Maybe GameExplain.
It’s worth bearing in mind where E3 came from and what it was originally designed to
do.
The expo started in 1995, and grew out of the tech expo CES.
As noted by The Washington Post: “In the early 1990s, to access the video
game section of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, attendees had to walk
through the convention center, toward the back of the hall, pass the [adult entertainment]
section, and go out the back door to a large tent set up in the parking lot.
There were Porta Potties and there was no real food.”
Former SEGA of America CEO Tom Kalinske recalls: “Right over the Sega display, there was
a leak at the top of the tent, and so the water was dripping down on my new Genesis
16-bit machines.
And I basically said to everybody, ‘Okay, that’s it, we’re never coming back here
again, we’re gonna have our own show.’”
E3, then, was posited as the video game answer to CES: a show primarily designed for companies
to market products to investors, retailers, and journalists.
It was at the first E3 that Sony of America president Steve Race made one of the most
famous presentations the history of the games industry.
Taking to the main stage for what had been billed as a “brief presentation”, he simply
said: “299”, and left the stage.
This was the retail price for the upcoming Sony PlayStation – a hundred dollars cheaper
than the SEGA Saturn.
Journalists in attendance lapped this up, reporting how Sony had dunked on SEGA.
The media reports of this keynote speech would go on to inform the weird tonal balancing
act that E3 has attempted to keep ever since.
Since its inception, E3 has attempted to be all things to all people.
For retailers, investors, and business partners, there are dry financial presentations.
For traditional journalists, there are special events designed to curry favour and ensure
more favourable media coverage.
As reports of these events gained notoriety, regular consumers have shown increasing interest
in attending E3 as well.
As social media platforms including YouTube have become the primary means through which
gaming news spreads.
According to New York University historian of video games Laine Nooney:
“The idea used to be that conventions like E3 were the place to deliver glowing keynotes
about the next generation of product.
The expo exerted a magnetic effect by drawing everyone into the same place over a small
period of time, creating a flurry of news coverage.
But many companies have discovered it’s just as effective to create tailored video
launches designed for circulation through social media.”
In 2006, amid fears that E3 attendance was becoming diluted by too many regular consumers
and armchair journalists, the expo was drastically scaled back.
This, though, proved unpopular, and since then the show has increasingly catered to
the widest possible audience.
With a presence at E3 costing millions of dollars, and with the audience at the expo
shifting to cater more to average consumers, many games companies have decided that the
show simply isn’t worth it.
In the words of Kotaku’s Luke Plunkett: “Why on earth would any major company want
to risk being a gladiator?
Why would they look at a scenario where the success of their billion-dollar enterprise
could be threatened by some kids deciding a game trailer or new hardware feature was
‘meh’?
Why would they bother sitting down with games press to answer questions when they could
just send out press releases?”
This sentiment was likely exacerbated when it was announced that the ESA was partnering
with ReedPop for future E3 shows.
ReedPop operates events like PAX and various MCM Comic
Cons around the world, and is primarily focused on consumers rather than traditional journalism
or industry professionals.
Said Stanley Pierre-Louis: “Historically, E3 served as an industry
platform to make announcements about games products and services, as well as an opportunity
for business to get done.
Over the years, even as consumers were invited to participate in E3, the event focused largely
on the industry's marketing and business needs.
“So when we decided to bring back E3 in person for 2023, we knew that it would have
to reflect those changing needs.
That's what made working with ReedPop an ideal situation.”
It seems, though, that while ReedPop is very good at squeezing money out of regular attendees,
this was likely taken by games companies as a sign that the already antiquated gaming
expo was drifting further from its original intended purpose.
According to Pierre-Louis: “We were off to a strong start.
There was interest among exhibitors, industry players, media and certainly the fans.
Ultimately, however, there were challenges that proved too large to surmount.
“First, several companies have reported that the timeline for game development has
been altered since the start of the COVID pandemic.
Second, economic headwinds have caused several companies to reassess how they invest in large
marketing events.
And third, companies are starting to experiment with how to find the right balance between
in-person events and digital marketing opportunities.”
Christopher Dring, a journalist for Games Industry.biz which is owned by ReedPop, was
privy to many of the conversations happening behind the scenes.
He summed up the failed convention thusly: “And at the start, oh that glorious start,
it seemed so positive.
Companies were talking about taking up huge spaces… the E3 team was looking at how we
could expand into the car park and use the extra areas that hadn't been used for years.
Back then all bar one of the big games companies were enthusiastic about the return of E3.
Or at least, they said they were.
Or at least, their events teams said they were.
“As the months dragged on and contracts remained unsigned, the mood changed.
And they gave good reasons for pulling out.
‘Our games aren't ready’, ‘We don't have code’, ‘We can't be seen to be extravagant
in this economy’, ‘The timing isn't quite right’, and so on.
“It doesn't matter how true those reasons were, it all amounts to the same thing: the
games industry didn't want it after all.”
Thus, the 2023 E3 has been cancelled as the companies involve reassess what E3’s role
in the gaming industry will be moving forward.
It’s unlikely that such a potent cultural touchstone – and such a big moneymaker for
the ESA – will remain dormant for long.
If and when E3 does return, though, it’s likely to be a very different experience.
The challenge with E3 over the years has always been the same: how to meet the needs of everyone
in attendance at the same time?
The moral of the story, then, is that you can’t please everyone.
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