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What do you suppose the real reason is for the cancellation of E3 this year?
Hard to say. In the words of Screen Rant who say it perfectly..
The cancellation of E3 2022 seems to be just the latest evidence of the trade show’s ultimate downfall, and the rest of the video game industry may not be able to make up for its absence. For gaming enthusiasts, E3 has been a yearly highlight, packed with new announcements and gameplay demonstrations. Scheduled livestreams like Summer Game Fest and a presentation from Xbox will partially fill the void, but without widespread coordination, E3’s level of excitement can’t be matched.
Organized and hosted by the Entertainment Software Association, the Electronic Entertainment Expo (more commonly called E3) has been around for nearly three decades, but has become less and less relevant every year. While always a source of excitement for the gaming community at large, the more traditional trade show aspect caters to a much smaller group of insiders, journalists, developers, and publishers, even though many E3s have allowed limited attendance from the general public. Individual presentations like Nintendo’s regular Directs – and even Sony opting not to participate in the event from 2019 onward – show that E3 isn’t entirely necessary, but its cancellation still leaves a significant void.
Chris Jones says – are they blaming Covid-19 for the cancellation – or the idea that there are more individual showcases that might be upstaging the entire E3 idea?
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A key component to E3’s appeal was its ability to consolidate press conferences from many different companies into a three day window. Without a third-party entity like the Entertainment Software Association in charge of scheduling, there’s really no incentive for publishers to cooperate on the timing of their big announcements. The event closest to emulating E3 is now Summer Game Fest, presided over by The Game Awards host Geoff Keighley.
Summer Game Fest will almost certainly have some exciting reveals this year, and may continue to grow into an even larger event, but the scheduled Xbox and Bethesda showcase highlights how small publishers may be adversely affected by E3 2022 being canceled. Getting the gaming community’s undivided attention for three days is a major benefit to indie games that are able to have their trailers featured at E3. Large companies like Microsoft will simply transition to what Sony has already been doing for three years – host individual presentations. Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo all have large enough followings to make up for the marketing buzz lost through E3 2022’s cancelation.
E3 2021 gave a boost to small games, but now there isn’t a definitive event for the ever-growing indie market to promote its games at. Summer Game Fest seems to be the next best option, but most of the attention will likely be on its opening night live show, which has limited availability compared to E3’s industry-wide blitz. Summer Game Fest is simply not big enough to replace E3 just yet, and companies that have the means will just continue on under their own power. Microsoft has even set its Xbox showcase for its normal E3 time slot, the second Sunday in June. The frequency of Nintendo Directs means one is likely in the next few months, and if Sony’s last two years are any indication, a PlayStation showcase will also happen this summer. Yea! E3 2022‘s cancellation wasn’t surprising, but it’s left a void that the industry seems collectively ill-equipped to fill.
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Credit for most of this article goes to Screen Rant.
