IT IS OFFICIAL: E3 IS DEAD! Why Did It Happen & Does Anyone Care?

Well this kind of sucks, in December of 2023 it was announced that E3, The electronics Entertainment expo, was officially dead. For the past several years it had been canceled, delayed, and rescheduled, But after it did not happen in 2023 the writing was on the wall. The GGWP, the organizing body behind it, finally admitted what everybody else knew. That E3 was over for good. With E3 now dead, why did it happen & does anyone care?

This is not something that I'm shocked to see, and it's not just the video gaming industry that's affected by it. See, trade shows and conventions are very expensive to put on. For example, the company I used to work for would spend north of $100,000 for a 3-day booth in Chicago. And that was just the cost of the booth! Then you add in transporting products for displays, personnel to be on staff, feeding people, going to meetings, and a whole lot more and you get something that in the end can be done for pennies on the dollar virtually online. Yes, it is a shame that E3 will not be happening anymore, but it's not just E3 that's feeling the pinch.

Years ago in the RC industry, we had a very similar concept called iHobby. It was held every year in Rosemont Illinois and it was a celebration of all things radio controlled. We would attend, the other bigwigs in the industry would attend, and it was where we debuted our new products for the year. The company I worked for was based in Central Illinois, so going up to Chicago was a minor thing. But we also had one of our key divisions in California, and we had to fly staff from California to Illinois. Plus Champaign, Illinois is about 2 hours away from Chicago, which means regardless if they were from Champaign or from California they had to be put up in hotels. Plus you have rental cars and baggage fees, there's so much that goes into putting on a convention. And in the end, someone can now turn on a webcam and have their presentation in an office or studio for pennies on the dollar. If you ran a business which would you rather do?

I am disappointed that I was never able to attend an E3, but I'm not surprised by its demise. I do wish the staff and organizers involved the best of luck as they try to figure out what they will do in the future. But for now, I fully expect Nintendo, Sony, and others to simply host their own streaming events around the beginning of summer to announce new products. Or quite frankly they could do it at any time of the year, they are not locked into this particular time now. This actually provides a lot of opportunity for the entire industry.

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