Ask Not For Whom The Bell Tolls, It Tolls For E3

December 12, 2023 9:43 AM

After nearly three decades and a number of ups and downs for the event, the Entertainment Software Association has announced the end of the Electronic Entertainment Exposition, better known as E3, coming after a deal with geek culture event management firm ReedPop falling apart.

E3 initially came out of a resurgent video game industry's struggles with existing industry shows like the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) no longer fitting their needs, and the desire to have a show specifically devoted to the video game industry in particular. The show had an immediate splash as it kicked off with the start of the fifth console generation - one of the first iconic E3 moments was Sony's famous "$299" mic drop. E3 quickly became a tentpole event for the industry, where major announcements were made public, while the backrooms allowed for industry deals to be made.

However, as the industry continued to grow, the development of other industry events like the Game Developers' Conference (GDC) and the decline of retail as a primary purchase and discovery channel for the industry (it's been said that the most important person at E3 was the lead buyer for Walmart) undercut the rationale for the show, especially as platform owners and developers found that direct media events were more effective in creating a managed outreach effort. Combined with the pandemic killing the show for a couple of years, it had become clear that there was no room for E3 anymore.

posted by NoxAeternum (12 comments total)

In memoriam.
posted by Pickman's Next Top Model at 9:56 AM on December 12, 2023 [1 favorite]

Sony's other iconic E3 press conference
posted by May Kasahara at 10:12 AM on December 12, 2023

I attended E3 from 2005-2011 (as media) and always had a blast with my team. I'll always treasure those memories.
posted by Servo5678 at 10:15 AM on December 12, 2023 [2 favorites]

Press [F] to pay respects
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 10:24 AM on December 12, 2023 [8 favorites]

I went to E3 once. It was fun, but a strike by Delta workers caused me to miss all but one day. Don't worry, I don't blame the workers.

The more fun time for me was when I was a kid and they opened up the Summer CES to the public for two years. It was at the McCormick center in Chicago and I lived in Illinois, so a friend and I convinced a parent to drive us there. It was amazing for a kid. Sega showed off Sonic 2. Street Fighter 2 made it's home system debut. I saw Will Wheaton shilling the Newtek Video Toaster.

What a blast, anything seemed possible back then.
posted by keep_evolving at 12:14 PM on December 12, 2023 [5 favorites]

So are trade shows dying in general? Having gone to MacWorld every year since 1984 to when ever Apple pulled out and it died, I miss the ability to see everything all at once in one place. Granted trade shows are just advertising with real people, you still could ask questions, and then walk over to a competitor’s booth and ask them questions. Over time, MacWorld devolved into iPhoneWorld which was mainly only booths selling phone cases. I think companies have learned that putting your stuff twenty feet away from your competitor’s stuff might not be beneficial, so instead, they host an online OnlyUs! extravaganza where they control the message 100%. A trade show was an industry on display. All we will have going on are hour long commercials with company execs green screened onto fake industrial settings.
posted by njohnson23 at 12:40 PM on December 12, 2023 [4 favorites]

I went to E3 a few times back in the day and even at the time it did seem odd in its consumer orientation. I was a game developer at the time and starting going to GDC exclusively.
posted by falsedmitri at 1:03 PM on December 12, 2023

So are trade shows dying in general?

The only one I have experience with is the annual conference of the American Library Association, which is the business meeting of the organization but (to my understanding) is heavily underwritten by the trade show component. That's been impacted by consolidation in the industry--if the biggest online catalog company buys the third-biggest, they no longer need two different expanses of the showroom floor--and revenues have been dwindling.
posted by Horace Rumpole at 1:19 PM on December 12, 2023 [1 favorite]

The only trade show I used to go to semi-regularly was NAB (National Association of Broadcasters, basically radio, TV, audio and video/film equipment and software), and I can say I haven't been since before the pandemic, and I'm not particularly interested in going back. It seems like most things you can just see online now, and the few things that are nice to see in person show up as demo models with various distributors a few months later anyway.
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 3:07 PM on December 12, 2023

So are trade shows dying in general?

Yes, in my experience. I went to COMDEX for years until it evaporated, and still go to CES off and on. CES has gone from a huge spectacle that took over Las Vegas to a small thing you could miss if you didn't stop at the right hotel.

Apple dropped out of both of those at some point but they weren't the only one.
posted by mmoncur at 7:41 PM on December 12, 2023 [1 favorite]

For those who don't know, the Triple Click podcast with Kirk Hamilton, Maddy Myers, and Jason Schreier is top notch and a part of the worker-owned Maximum Fun network.
posted by AlSweigart at 8:23 PM on December 12, 2023 [1 favorite]

I never got to go, but I'm grateful that I attended a number of Macworld Expos during their heyday which had very similar energy. Is this really a dying thing? That would be too bad. The in-person energy was great! What expos are left??
posted by Lectrick at 5:43 PM on December 13, 2023