The announcement of the cancellation of the E3 2023 it’s still fresh but huge speculations have already been fired as to whether the event may return in 2024. And the only thing certain so far is that not even its organizers know it; or, at least, they do not dare to make predictions about it.
In an interview with GamesIndustry.bizthe CEO of ESA, Stanley Pierre-Louishe referred to the reasons that led to the cancellation of E3 2023. He talked about various problems in the video game industry that became too big obstacles to overcome.
He said developers couldn’t get back to their pre-pandemic roadmaps, companies still haven’t found the balance between virtual and in-person events, and global economic complications have also hit the organization hard.
Of self-criticism, little or nothing. Certainties regarding what will happen to the fair in the future, even less. Is there a chance that, after the cancellation of E3 2023, planning for the 2024 edition will begin? Or was yesterday’s announcement the final nail in the coffin for a flagging event? What the ESA director did have left over was vagueness in his concepts. Asked if the plan was for E3 to return in 2024, he indicated:
“We are committed to providing an industry platform for marketing and convening, but we want to make sure we find the right balance that meets the needs of the industry. We will certainly be listening and making sure that what we want to offer meets those needs, and at that point we will have more news to share.”
Many words to say nothing, certainly.
The failure of E3 2023 and the uncertainty towards 2024
It is clear that the road that led to the cancellation of E3 2023 was long. Neither ESA nor ReedPop concluded that the event was unfeasible overnight.. The symptoms could be seen coming from afar. The absences of Nintendo, Xbox, Ubisoft, Sega and Tencent were not the cause of the fair collapsing either, but the confirmation that something did not smell right.
Being fair to Stanley Pierre-Louis, it was illogical that a few hours after canceling this year’s E3 he would go out to confirm or not the realization of 2024. However, it was not expected that all his speech throughout the aforementioned interview was so lazy. Almost as if this year the blow really had been a knockout.
In fact, the tone of their answers was the same before two key questions. The first, about whether E3 needed Xbox, PlayStation and Nintendo to be successful. To which he replied:
“E3 will evolve to ensure it meets the needs of companies looking to market on this global platform. That means it will iterate on how people interact with E3. We want to meet the needs of players who see this as an important platform and one that is going to evolve over time.”
The second, that if he believed that if E3 would return, it would do so without the shine of the past:
“ESA has defended the industry in the US for almost 30 years. E3 has been on for much of this time. It is an important staple in what we offer to the industry. It’s certainly one of the things we bring to the industry, including the important promotional work, but we really look forward to bringing the industry together to showcase the amazing innovations and creative work we’ve produced.
That will stay strong with the ESA ensuring that we continue to provide those opportunities. We’d certainly love E3 to continue to be a part of that, but we know we’ll continue in our day-to-day roles in promoting the industry.”
the two statements They seemed taken from a press release and not out of the mouth of the CEO of ESA. Which raises even more concerns about the possibility of seeing E3 in 2024, regardless of the details about its format.
When E3 2022 was cancelled, the ESA moved quickly to say that it planned to come back full force in 2023, both virtually and in person. Today that same conviction is not felt on the part of the organizers. Perhaps also because the specialized video game press itself seemed to mature the idea that if the conference did not return this year, it possibly never would.
It remains to be seen if there is any kind of reaction from the ESA and ReedPop in the coming months. An E3 in 2024 still not completely ruled outbut the hopes of its being realized today are lower than ever.