At this point, it is pretty safe to say that E3 will not be making a comeback of any kind. As spotted by a ResetEra user named Rosti, the Los Angeles City Tourism Board of Commissioners recently held a meeting going over projected tourism businesses in the city. Noted on page 21 of the report is the “Booked Rooms Night Produced” with an asterisk that says E3 2024 and 2025 are canceled.
Of course, without official word from the ESA itself, you can take this news with a grain of salt. There is always a chance that the group putting these numbers together may be guessing that those events are no longer happening. The show was canceled this year just a few months ago, so they may be playing it safe and lowering their projected numbers.
If E3 2024 and 2025 are canceled, it is almost assuredly done for good. In the last decade or so, the excitement around the event you would normally expect has fallen drastically. Of course, the pandemic did not help, forcing the event to cancel in 2020, but as big companies like Sony, Xbox, and Nintendo started pulling out, there wasn’t much reason for it to keep happening. Say what you want about Geoff Keighley’s handling of Summer Game Fest the last few years, but businesses and gamers seem to be looking to that as a semi-substitute for E3 going forward.
If this is the end of E3, there are going to be a lot of people saying they called it a long time ago. As gamers that grew up wishing to participate in the exciting festivities of gaming’s future, it is a bittersweet feeling. The industry seemed to outgrow the event, and the ESA was not fast enough to adapt.
