E3 is dead and won’t return for at least a few years. E3 will not return to Los Angeles in 2024 or 2025. The announcement was made in a footnote to a table that showed the city’s predicted and actual number of hotel rooms booked in fiscal years 2022 and 2023.
The city does not expect E3 to return in 2024 or 2025. This news contradicts the messages from E3’s organizers, ReedPop and the ESA. The ESA, the trade association that administers E3, announced earlier this year that it would join ReedPop, the entertainment firm that operates huge fan conventions, including New York Comic-Con and Penny Arcade Expo, to run E3 2023.
Following the cancellation of in-person events between 2020 and 2022 due to the covid-19 epidemic, 2023 was supposed to signal the return of the video game industry’s most significant event of the year.
However, E3 2023 was canceled, with ReedPop global vice president of gaming Kyle Marsden-Kish explaining that the cause was publishers not having game demos or reels ready in time. However, if E3 2024 and 2025 are similarly canceled, it signals that something else is keeping E3 from returning or that its organizers are considering moving it away from Los Angeles.
Despite the cancellation of E3, other events have stepped up to fill the void. Geoff Keighley hosted Summer Game Fest last week, which included an Xbox demonstration and a Starfield presentation. Sony staged its PlayStation event earlier this month, showcasing gameplay for Insomniac Games’ Spider-Man 2. Nintendo and Ubisoft made presentations, and Steam is hosting a week-long event.
The press release announcing the cancellation of E3 2023 mentioned that ESA and ReedPop might collaborate on future E3 events. In an email to The Verge, the ESA wrote-
“ESA is currently having conversations about E3 2024 (and beyond), and no final decisions about the event have been made.”
