June 23 – Added comment from the ESA.
It seems that a beloved era of gaming is truly over as E3 is canceled yet again. This time, though, the event renowned around the world as the biggest delivery of gaming news and funny moments has been canceled for the next two years. That’s right, we won’t be seeing our favorite recaps and cringe compilations for a good while now, if ever again. Summer Games Fest brought us news this year on RPG game gems like Fable and Starfield, but many of us still miss the buzz that a big real-life event brought with it.
The Los Angeles City Tourism Board of Commissioners has confirmed that E3 will not be going ahead in either 2024 or 2025. The news has come following the official Commission Meeting that took place on Wednesday, June 21. On one of the included slides you can find on the meeting’s included overview packet here, the citywide convention sales for Los Angeles are listed.
You can see average yearly amounts as well as booked room nights produced, but the part that has caught us gamers’ eyes is located in the bottom right corner of the slide. Right next to a little asterisk, the text reads, “Includes E3 cancellations for 2024 & 2025.”
The 2024 E3 event was meant to take place on Tuesday, June 11 while the 2025 E3 event was set to happen on Tuesday, June 3. Back when 2023’s E3 event was first canceled, GamesIndustry.biz sat down with the ESA president and CEO Stanley Pierre-Louis to ask about 2024’s E3 plans. The response read, “We’re committed to providing an industry platform for marketing and convening but we want to make sure we find that right balance that meets the needs of the industry.”
The CEO then followed up by saying, “We’re certainly going to be listening and ensuring whatever we want to offer meets those needs and at that time, we will have more news to share.” Hopefully, we will all live to get to see E3 happen live once more.
Update – June 23: In a statement to GamesIndustry.biz, an ESA spokesman says that it is “currently having coversations about E3 2024 (and beyond),” and that “no final decisions about the event have been made at this time.” Perhaps there’s still life in the old dog yet, then, but only time will tell.
If you want to cheer yourself up, you can try by having a look through some of the coolest upcoming PC games, some of which appeared at Summer Games Fest. Alternatively, you can browse a few of the best PC games that are already out there and ready for you to play.