The future of the Electronic Entertainment Expo once again remains uncertain as the event’s organizers announced today that they’d parted ways. The Entertainment Software Association which is the primary organizer of the once-annual event was previously working with ReedPop, the organizers of the Pax events, to evolve E3 into a format that worked in today’s age of digital-only showcases conducted largely on publisher’s own terms. As far as plans for E3 2024 go, the ESA said that it’s still working to develop a workable version of the event and will be sharing more info in the coming months.
This news follows the cancelation of E3 2023 during a time when the event has largely been replaced by those aforementioned digital showcases like Nintendo Directs as well as the competing Summer Game Fest event. It was previously reported that the ESA would not be holding an E3 event in 2024 nor in 2025, but those comments were since clarified despite the future of the show still being up in the air.
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ESA and ReedPop Split
Gamesindustry.biz shared statements from the ESA about the split with ReedPop with the former now presumably back on its own to plan out the future of E3 after partnering with the Pax organizers. The two worked together for 14 months, statements from the ESA recalled, with no E3 events to show for it considering how the last E3 was in 2021.
“While the reach of E3 remains unmatched in our industry, we are continuing to explore how we can evolve it to best serve the video game industry and are evaluating every aspect of the event, from format to location,” said ESA president and CEO Stanley Pierre-Louis. “We are committed to our role as a convenor for the industry and look forward to sharing news about E3 in the coming months.”
The decision to split was said to be a mutual one.
E3 2024?
So, with this split now announced, what’s happening with E3 next year? The initial speculation about the 2024 event and potentially the 2025 one, too, being canceled stemmed from the fact that the Los Angeles Convention Center no longer listed E3 on its schedule for the upcoming years. That was taken first as a sign that the show was canceled, but the ESA later came forward to say that it had not yet canceled the show and was still evaluating how E3 could reinvent itself. E3 still isn’t on the Los Angeles Convention Center’s schedule, so if it is held next year, it presumably won’t be held there.
If E3 does make a return, it’ll likely be a mix of digital and physical formats given that that’s what the ESA and ReedPop had previously been exploring. If the event were to take place at the same time it typically does, E3 2024 is less than a year away now, so perhaps we will hear more about the event in the coming months if the ESA comes up with a solution.
