Is E3 Dead?

 Probably

In 1995, Erik Earling Easterburn successfully identified a huge and enticing gap in the technology market. For years beforehand the Consumer Electronic Show (1964-today) and the European Trade Computer Show (1988-2004) were the two trade shows that dominated everything to do with electronics in entertainment. But Erik knew there was untapped potential due to burst forth from the rush of modern, constantly reiterating, technologies. Having had apprenticed under technological giants like Cave Johnson and co-dormed with visionaries like Miles Dyson, Erik had the process of rapidly progressing technological niches printed onto his frontal cortex; he knew the coming expanded diversification of technology fields would warrant specialised trade shows in each sector, and he wanted to be the man to snatch up the, currently still infantile, video gaming branch of tech.

 Reaching out to anyone in this fresh industry who would pick up the phone, partnered and financed with his well-connected sister, Eunice Sarah Allistar, (Nee Easterburn) they managed to get the big studios they needed, as well as a huge venue in the Los Angeles Convention Centre, to host the worlds very first tradeshow dedicated solely to video games and displaying the best and brightest of the industry. Just in time for powerhouse classics to feature on the very first show floor, like that years' 'Knuckles Chaotix', 'Garfield: Caught in the act', 'DOOM' but not that DOOM- the SNES version, 'Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure'- which is the fourth Pitfall game. Because of course they made four. 'Ecco Jr.', this one's still a dolphin. And 'White Men Can't Jump', which I thought was a movie, but what do I know? All games destined to be absolute classics we all talk about today with excitable reverence. All bought together by an unbreakable brother-sister team, sealed in a convention baring the abbreviated name of the creator. Erik Earling Easterburn: E3.

What a beautiful story; and one you won't find on Wiki, Youtube, or literally any other source on the known web apart from here. Hmm, how do I know it then? What's my source? Well, Jack: My source is that I made it the F*** up. That's right it's all bull. I fooled you. Our writers came up with that one. Not this time. (A similar incident did occur for the speed-eating champion of Scranton Pennsylvania however, Chalupa division.) I know that's nakedly and unashamedly dishonest, but I thought a wink and a joke would be the best way to break the news that the ol' parents may be getting a divorce. That's right, Jimmy; the ESA and E3 can no longer stand to be in the same room as each other, let alone wake up each and every morning opposite someone that they hate. That's why as of a couple days ago, the E3 conference 2022 was cancelled, physical and digital event, leaving us hanging around in another year of abject turmoil as we sit around wondering "Who's going to get the kids."

It's no secret that this pandemic has screwed the ever loving life out of the E3 expos. Ever since 2020 they haven't been allowed to do a proper in person show, and 2021 featured a digital show so bad that I still have nightmares that I'm trapped on a movie set with Randy Pitchford who keeps almost showing me things from the Borderlands Movie before cutting the camera away at the last second. True hell. Only for that show to be outperformed by Playstation's several online events later that year, Xbox's own event, Nintendo's own event; practically everyone and their fish could hold more compelling video-game related reveal events that don't have to rely on painful bloat or ludicrously overinflated host time slots. Let the PC Gaming Show and it's notoriously overinvolved skits be the lightning rod for why this style of presentation is so utterly behind us. If nothing else we can celebrate that we won't have to deal with another 3 minute mirthless banter between two chemically insoluble 'comedic' hosts and their soul-killing robot mascot. If I had to endure another- huh? The PC Gaming Show is still happening despite the lack of an E3? Well crap. Why even cancel it then?

Of course, it's not just the cringe; the trade show has lost interest with the market as people have grown so used to a world built for instant gratification, and strayed so far from pre-scheduled time-stealing broadcasts that a belated, twisted trade expo like E3 seems archaic. And if the audience doesn't want to put up with the fuss around E3 anymore, then you can bet that the developers and publisher don't want to either. I'm sure you don't need to convince them at all to pull back on the multimillion dollar investment it takes to rent out a convention slot at the LA centre during E3. An expense that Devolver Digital pretty much dedicated it's entire E3 presence to mocking over the past decade. The ESA don't have their stranglehold over the year of game announcements anymore, and this sudden cancellation shows that they're feeling it.

I say this because whilst this might feel very sudden for us, those with their ears in the right places report that this storm has been brewing for a long while. Those typically in charge of reaching out to the ESA for events like these noticed all the way back in December that they weren't receiving any correspondence, and had assumed themselves that the show was off. Which collides with the ESA's stated reason for the show being cancelled: due to the emergence of the Omicron variant. We weren't even that far down the Greek alphabet by December! So true to their embarrassing form, the ESA have made big moves and lied about them to the public for no good reason. Unless to hide the palpable lack of power they've adopted in the past year, but that was going to come out anyway. Lying about it just makes them look pathetic and dishonest.

And the public reaction to this? Well it seems to be pretty widespread relief and/or mocking. Oh, and a initial hurdle of disbelief as this news was officially revealed on freakin' April Fools day; what were they thinking? Just as with 2020 the conversation has turned to suppositions about whether or not we need E3, with the added ammunition of now we've already had these debates, followed by a pretty trashy online E3 just last year to sour perceptions further. Meanwhile the huge game reveals: The gameplay drop for Elden Ring, the Knights of the Old Republic Remake, and the delay of Breath of the Wild 2, happened either around this show, with independent articles that reached just as far as E3 would have, or during Geoff Keighley's game award; which is proving to be the Oscars of gaming. (With less flinging meat.) Oh, and Geoff quietly praised the cancellation with a smiley face Tweet and the confirmation that Summer Games Fest is happy and eager to take it's place.

So we have an E3-less world coming up ahead of us, and though the ESA promises to the high heavens that it'll be back in 2023; one has to ask "What's the point?" Companies don't need you, the audience can't stand you, industry veterans mock your misfortunes, more and more it's feeling like the sun has set on the ESA's cash cow and their bitterness refuses to accept that. Like Colonel Volgin pushing his bullet-riddled burned body past the point of certain death because he promised to us all "It isn't over yet!" Well maybe it is. Maybe it ended 2 years ago. Maybe all this flailing and gasping is for naught and nobody is going to turn up to your crappy house party this time next year. And maybe the dream that Erik Earling Easterburn dreamt all those years ago has finally run it's course... Wait, I made that up. Dammit; what are we talking about again?