UPDATE: The ESA, the organization that runs E3, has stated it is still deciding on what its plans for E3 2024 and beyond looks like. No final decision has been made, despite the claims from the Los Angeles City Tourism Board of Commissioners.
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The original story follows below.
E3 will reportedly not return in 2024 or 2025. E3 has always been one of the most beloved events in the entire industry and has often been viewed as a Christmas-esque event for gamers. It’s where we got a bunch of new looks and details on all the hottest games, hardware, and so much more. It’s a week of the biggest news, trailers, and demos, but unfortunately, it has struggled to make a comeback. The last “proper” E3 was in 2019. It was canceled in 2020, returned in 2021 as a digital event that a lot of people felt was weak, was canceled in 2022 and 2023 as well. There was an intent to bring it back in the future, but it seems if it happens, it will be a while.
The reason being for that is that E3 has been reportedly canceled for 2024 and 2025. The Los Angeles City Tourism Board of Commissioners held a meeting with various numbers, updates, and forecasts for tourism in the city of Los Angeles, where E3 has historically been held. The event is typically in the Los Angeles Convention Center and occupies that space for about a week in June. The space has to be reserved pretty far in advance and E3 is one of the biggest conventions occupying that space, but the the Los Angeles City Tourism Board of Commissioners noted that E3 had been canceled for 2024 and 2025. With that said, it’s unclear if it will return in the future. It’s possible E3 just relocates to a different city or something.
However, given the struggles E3 has already had post-COVID, it seems like we shouldn’t hold our breath. Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo seem to be more content with digital showcases or participating in Summer Game Fest, a new rival to E3. Maybe one day E3 will make the splash that fans want it to, but it will likely require a lot of time to make that happen.
What do you think of E3 being canceled? Let me know in the comments or hit me up on Twitter @Cade_Onder.
A previous version of this story said E3 2024 & 2025 had been “Officially” canceled. We’ve updated the story to reflect the ESA’s new comments.
