'The time has come to say goodbye,' the ESA wrote in a statement.
E3 has had a rocky run since its last in-person show in 2019. Like many conventions, it saw cancellations due to Covid-19, but never managed to make a proper comeback. The ESA has tried and failed to bring the show back to its former glory, and those efforts will now cease. E3 is shutting down for good, its organizer announced in a statement.
The ESA announced the shuttering of E3 in a statement this morning. In a post to the event’s official Twitter/X profile, the organization wrote “after more than two decades of E3, each one bigger than the last, the time has come to say goodbye.” The company also provided a longer statement.
Source: The ESA
The ESA tried to revive E3 this year, calling up PAX organizer ReedPop to help them pull it off. Those efforts fell through after companies like Nintendo and Xbox confirmed they wouldn’t be at the show. Ubisoft, which had previously confirmed it’d be at E3, backed out of the event in favor of its own digital showcase. The ESA and ReedPop eventually pulled the plug, stating that they would be back for “future E3 events.”
With E3 officially dead, there won’t be a will they/won’t they surrounding E3 2024. With that, the groundwork has been laid for Geoff Keighley’s Summer Game Fest to once again dominate the gaming news season in 2024.
Donovan is a young journalist from Maryland, who likes to game. His oldest gaming memory is playing Pajama Sam on his mom's desktop during weekends. Pokémon Emerald, Halo 2, and the original Star Wars Battlefront 2 were some of the most influential titles in awakening his love for video games. After interning for Shacknews throughout college, Donovan graduated from Bowie State University in 2020 with a major in broadcast journalism and joined the team full-time. He is a huge Scream nerd and film fanatic that will talk with you about movies and games all day. You can follow him on twitter @Donimals_
