There were huge question marks over the purpose of E3 last year, when Sony’s tentpole showcase failed to meet expectations and the other publishers were unable to pick up the slack. This year has been immeasurably worse: whatever your thoughts on the various press conferences, there’s simply no doubt that this year’s convention has been a washout.
PlayStation didn’t help matters by staying at home, of course. The company could have had a show: Death Stranding, The Last of Us: Part II, Ghost of Tsushima, Marvel’s Iron Man VR, and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare might not have made for a vintage media briefing – but it would have been enough. It decided to wash its hair instead.
Looking at the state of some of the other showcases this past week, perhaps other publishers should have followed its lead. EA gets brownie points for detailing the exact schedule of its livestream in advance, but we genuinely don’t know why it bothers anymore; Bethesda’s starting to give the impression that it only shows up to burn some of Zenimax’s cash.
Ubisoft, to be fair, had Watch Dogs Legion, and even though Microsoft disappointed overall, it just about justified its showcase with a dozen or so decent games. But only really Nintendo had anything of purpose to announce at E3 2019, and you can perhaps attribute that to the fact it’s working on a different timeline to everyone else.
It’d be easy to shrug and say this is just a bad year, but the truth is that the Los Angeles convention has been waning in importance for a while now. What was a behemoth trade show has since opened its doors to the public, and companies have started to realise that they can make announcements on their own time. Rockstar never goes to E3, and it makes the biggest games in the world.
Next year could be a watershed moment for the show, because there’s every chance Sony may not return. Yes, it’ll be flaunting the PlayStation 5 at that point, but it’s going to announce the console on its own terms – it’s perfectly capable of putting on a flashy stage show and broadcasting that online. Will it even need to be at E3 2020 when it’ll likely have already blown its load?
We’re obviously not suggesting that the Japanese giant will make or break the convention – we’re sure that the show will continue to live on whether PlayStation makes a comeback or not. And with most publishers holding back their next-gen projects, we’re equally confident that next year will be better for the show overall.
But there are question marks now. Publishers and platform holders don’t have to compete for attention anymore: look at the kind of impact Death Stranding’s release date trailer had prior to the show. E3 may still be the most important date in the gaming calendar, but it’s clinging on to that accolade now, and there’s every chance it could let go.
Do you think E3 is still relevant? Will Sony make a return next year? Can you see other publishers starting to pull out? Debate the future of the Los Angeles convention in the comments section below.
Comments 48
It's still relevant but no where close to where it was in the past and doubt it'll ever be back to that level. This E3, while it had many great looking games, really felt like an off year since we know next gen is starting in 2020. As much as I get hyped for the live conferences, this year moreso than any other, showed that they are really kind of unnecessary and pretty much a waste of most people's time/money imo. I think nintendo has the best format, 40 minute prerecorded video and then a few days of deeper dives into games afterwards so you can pick what you want to watch. That being said I expect the next one to be more inline with what we're used to with the major players there to show off Ray tracing and 8k and all that jazz.
While other factors may have had as much impact, opening what was once a industry trade show - where they would essentially show their stuff to a receptive audience - to the public basically turned it into a ComicCon-type experience where the public was indifferent to all but the most-hyped. Maybe they could refocus on smaller devs and indie games and leave the the big fish alone.
Ask me next year.
The Wii U really only lasted 4 years, should have lasted 5, so the Switch should still be relatively new but its over 2 years old now.
The PS4 and Xbox both came out in 2013. Previous gen consoles lasted 5 or 6 years, those 2 are lasting 7 years, next gen consoles both should have released this year and E3 would have been rocking. But they didn't, so it didn't.
Maybe E3 should only be every other year. Or maybe we just shouldn't' put so much stock into a US show in a global gaming world that has shows all over.
But next year E3 should have a bunch of next gen PS5 and Xbox Scarlett games, maybe Switch Pro. If Sony ditches it next year then it's pretty much over.
Next year is do or die certainly.
Interesting to see how split the opinions are here. I still look forward to E3 and a most years I come away feeling excited about the year ahead, mentally charting out the course of games I'm going to be going through for the next year. I also like that it's mostly sizzle-reel stuff rather than full-blown, extended demos - I don't like to see too much of a game before I play it. So for me, I'd be very sad to see it go or for Sony to do its own thing from now on. Would it change my gaming habits or anything like that? No, of course not, but a little of the magic would be gone. But then I'm a 90s gamer through and through and was raised on reading about E3 in various magazines. That's how I first got excited about games and it'll always have a place in my heart. But I can imagine younger gamers not being as bothered.
If Sony skips E3 next year and does their own thing, then I'll see that as an unequivocal sign that E3 is on the decline. Otherwise, yeah, I think it's still relevant.
It has become completely ridiculous.
I just read an article (on a different site) about a game presentation. The panel discussed the game for 30-40 minutes then opended up the floor for questions. The first question was if a certain character is a lesbian. Somebody traveled to E3, waited in many lines, sat through the presentation just to ask this riveting question.
This is likely the only thing I am going to remember from E3 2019.
E3 was a merchant and media show. Now that its open to the Public it turning into another public fan show with less focus merchants and media. There are a lot of public game shows who's floor space cost is a fraction of the premium cost for E3 floor space.
Everybody in a few year's time when E3 is no longer a thing, "I miss E3."
@Acquiescence Or a sign that Sony's success has caused their head to migrate so far up their butt that they think they can get away with going solo. Almost like they think they're too good to be at E3 or something.
Its done. Nothing was accomplished at E3 that couldn't be done by a live stream on YouTube. Better still they can do that when they actually have something to show when they are ready to show it.
Quite relevant, if only in terms of it being the biggest event of the year with regard to gaming news.
I don't think it necessarily needs to be a show for the press, though. I'd like to see it turn into a fully open forum for people to try out new games and attend events, and for all of the live shows to be turned into streams that are broadcast both at the event and on the internet.
Nintendo has perfected the art of E3 with their showing in 2019, I think. I want to see Sony and Microsoft's shows reflect that format (a video that snappily jumps from game to game without boring interviews and whatnot, followed by days of gameplay footage for upcoming titles).
I think it's very much a next year will be the decider thing. When Sony pulled out of 2019 then I really wasn't bothered about this year's E3 compared to my hype for last year's (which mostly disappointed me, so that was probably another factor), but catching up on all the E3 news past couple of days I was pleasantly surprised. Though that's mostly because I'm a big JRPG fan and love remasters/remakes so that I can have everything available on one Sony system like the games organisation freak I am! 😄 Also, Cyberpunk coming so soon was a great surprise announcement as well as Outer Worlds and FFVII Ep1 release dates too, and it also helped that Nintendo had a much better E3 as I'll probably finally get a Switch around Black Friday. This year it was a case for me of the "blessed is she who expected nothing" proverb I reckon. Though I think if I had sat through all the broadcasts and not just read Push Square, Nintendo Life, and watched my favourite Youtubers break the news down after the fact, my patience would have failed me early on!
What I don't really understand is why no next gen gameplay is being shown now.
I guess there's the possibility that it would take away from all the other games being showcased, but it feels a bit weird to almost completely avoid the elephant in the room.
Xbox teasing that the next Halo is coming at launch was interesting, but the trailer for it didn't look impressive at all really.
It just feels a bit of a missed opportunity I think
To me, the answer is no, it is not relevant to publishers. They have to spend millions to attract attentions with shows, they have to have the right stuff to show and at the end of the day, they share the limelight with all the other publishers, if something in the show doesnt work then they get slammed for it and if people are disappointed they say they lost or didn't win E3.
Or they can save that money, release news when they want which they can then be sure to dominate the media with and not compete with others for news. I mean Sony launched that Death Stranding trailer and info with a release date and every Youtube news channel, website and social media platforms trended for days. If they had launched it over E3 it would have made news but it would have been shared with BOTW2 and Watch Dogs etc.
As a consumer, I like it. It is good to have something in the calendar to join in with but I can see it doesn't make sense for publishers.
Its never black or white. Its still relevant for some, not so much for others. At the end of the day gaming is much more diverse and one big event were everything is crammed dont do it justice.
Sony to have their own event would be best for everyone.
Yes as it is happy time of the year but Nintendo should go back to a floor show instead of it being filmed somewhere. Mabe they should have a Gamer con as well so the big names are there but also a hugh celebration of video games with talks history and lessons just a big celebration of the video games life we love.
I remember E3 being the seminal time during the year for video games, unfortunately for E3 the large announcements and other various announcements have been spread out throughout the year for a steady stream of decent news. I can appreciate that. Although it makes me sad that E3 is waning, I'm excited where games are going.
Are you guys going to ask this every year? The burning question!
It's definitely still relevant. Millions of people still watch E3 and headlines are still a big deal. It's the one time of the year that my friends who don't follow gaming at all actually come up to me and say, "yo, did you see that new game announced yesterday?" That being said, it isn't the be-all end-all show it used to be back in the day. Companies are gradually spreading game reveals and information throughout the year rather than put everything into one showing. So yeah, E3 might not be as big of a deal as it once was, but it's still relevant and probably will continue to be.
@Rick_Deckard -the thing is Sony doesn't actually have anything new to show, that's why they didn't go, everything in the works for PS4 has already been shown at last years E3, yeah there is the PS5 but there is no point in showing that until it's ready to be shown otherwise you just get like MS did at the XB conference this year "we have a new console but nothing to show about it, so here are some buzz words"
it would only harm Sony to go there and spend all that money but show sweet eff all
Sure it is. Otherwise what has everyone been doing for the past week?
I don't think e3 still relevant, sony make more buzz on their next generation playstation rather than microsoft, I'm more hyped for death stranding compared to others games at e3, with the exception of cyberpunk and final fantasy 7 remastered, but those 2 games can be showed anywhere and the result/hype will be the same.
I know I’ve been reading articles and getting hyped all week, and I think most gamers still love all of the E3 news. Nintendo’s stock dropped 2.3 billion right after their E3 direct, so I assume investors still pay attention to the show as well.
The importance of E3 is very dependent on what its 'purpose' is in the current world of gaming. If its purely to announce to the 'press' what new games, hardware etc is due out in the upcoming future so that they can then let their 'Readers' know as it was before the Social Media killed off most (if not all) reason to buy magazines, then its purpose is very much doomed. All Publishers can control what message they have, when that message goes out and reach their target audience directly without relying on 3rd Parties (Press) to convey that message accurately to the right people.
E3 can still be relevant as Phil Spencer stated the show is a vital point where the industry can come together to prove that it should be taken seriously: "We have to stand up as an art form and an industry and explain that we're not just slack-jawed kids in basements swearing at each other and trying to headshot everybody". Its changed from being a press only event where companies could reveal to the Press what the gaming world has to offer in the future and for the Press to then take that information and pass it on to their readers.
Another aspect of course is that E3 is also the 'start' of the big gaming events, that kick off the run into the holiday season with Gamescom, TGS etc to come - building up the hype for the gaming community to the busiest time of the year. Its 'iconic' in that aspect and something the gaming public want to continue, look forward to etc.
Personally, I don't think MS's was 'bad'. Yes I would like to have seen them give much more time to the games (something that can also be done by the publishers closer to release via their social media accounts) but considering the fact that all the others had very little 'new' to show as they gear up to the launch of next gen hardware, they still had a LOT if world premiers to reveal. Nintendo are not looking to replace the Switch anytime soon so don't need to be 'secretive' about games that are coming to a next gen console that hasn't really been announced, hasn't been locked in spec wise.
Whilst the 'press' show that MS gave may well of 'disappointed' with showing teaser trailers to get through 60 games, as well as other announcements in their hour and a half, you cannot deny that they had more games to announce than ever before, more than EA, Bethesda, Ubisoft and Square Enix combined. If they gave just 2mins to every game, that would mean the show would have gone on for over 2hrs! For a 'press' event, that is a LOT of new things to talk about, a lot of new games for articles to be written about etc. For a 'gamer', its not great as we want to see the game in action etc - nothing that we can't find out ourselves as more in depth discussions, the press who get hands on to write about etc after the show but the Show itself was meant more for the 'press' than it was for gamers. That is the 'important' point that E3 is a press event and that they can get hands on, more information etc after the 1.5hr show - which we gamers are not always given the chance to see.
It depends where you are in Europe its useless you think im going too stay till how long in the morning and on the most terrible days. No ill watch on my terms and times so why waste your money on the E3.
I think so. Someone always pulls it out of the bag and makes it all worthwhile. While I'm not sure how many years E3 has left, I think it's safe for now.
It's still relevant. This is just one of those years where companies are preparing for the next gen, but don't want to reveal too much about that just yet, so naturally it's not as fantastic as usual. Next year's show should be brilliant.
There's still been plenty of interesting things at E3 this year. There was new footage for top class games like Cyberpunk 2077, Final Fantasy 7, Avengers, and Watch Dogs 3. Microsoft had plenty of games at their conference, though they should have had more gameplay. Square Enix and Nintendo had lots of gameplay at their things.
There wasn't a category for my poll answer, so I selected the nearest one.
Q. Is E3 Still Relevant?
A. No, and it never has been (apart from the Journalistic world).
Nintendo dropped out of E3 the year they decided to do a direct instead of a presser. They could pivot away from the show at any time because the directs have made their marketing very agile. It's nice to see Sony following suite with State of Play, I'm really excited to see how that evolves.
E3 is a relic of a bygone era when we didn't have instant access to information and the platforms for entertaining direct communication. The excitement of E3 for many years, and the only thing that's kept it relevant, is DENSITY. The sheer amount of announcements, reveals, and footage is all that's been keeping it afloat, and there's something to be said for that. E3 has morphed more and more from a trade show into a convention every year. Maybe it should just continue that evolution.
@Hengist but journalists wouldn’t be covering E3 if their coverage wasn’t getting any attention from the outside. Maybe they’d want to, but their corporate overlords certainly wouldn’t pay for their travel and lodging expenses, it the E3 content they were creating wasn’t getting any clicks.
E3 was great, it's a shame Sony missed it.
I'd like to see Sony do a State of Play around E3 next year. I don't really need a full stage show, but it would be nice to see them do something on the show floor. I do expect Sony to announce the PS5 at a stage show though, separate from E3.
@Circasurviver Have an upvote in appreciation of your logic. Personally, I've never looked at it, in that way. Food for thought. Thanks for the enlightenment.
*Edit: In summary; It's like the greeting cards industry or the industrial-military complex, bleeding into what is deemed as an acceptable norm in today's culture, i.e. A self-perpetuating entity.
I think E3 is an outdated concept. In this day and age, publishers can just make announcement and post reveal trailers on social media, so as far as I can see, there'd no real point to E3 itself anymore
@RadoGoji I totally agree. Well said (wrote).
It was over before it even began. Strange year for E3. Strange time in gaming though.
if it's not relevant than I don't believe a lot of people here in pushsquare.of course it is even though Sony wasn't there I was still hyped not as much because I mostly watch e3 for sony but still watch the others.word up son
I was actually talking about this with a co-worker on Monday, we all know its relevance has sure diminished in this day and age because of the internet and all, but E3 is like Christmas for gamers, it is a big event you wait for every year, and there's a 50-50 chance you'll end up disappointed.
Not me though, not this year, FFVIIR was in it so hell yeah!
Poll is very interesting. Seems like we're all pretty much split on this!
@Frigate Exactly. It is a relevant as we make it. Even this site has made it very relevant.
I think the fact that this site that caters to Playstation fans covered the lion's share of E3, even though Sony wasn't even present, and that most of the last two weeks of discussion were directly about E3 or something related to it shows that it is still very relevant. Besides, if Sony waited a week and had a very light showing at E3, say Death Stranding and TLOU2 release dates, we would be flooded with "Did Sony win E3!?!?" posts and articles on just this site alone. Heck, even if Sony still didn't attend E3 but they dropped Death Stranding's trailer during E3, we would STILL being hearing about how they won E3. Overall, I think E3 is very relevant for the industry. It gives off an "all eyes on you" feeling that other conventions just can't replicate. It's like how anyone can drops some trailers or host an event themselves, like PS State of Play, but the direct comparison they get is with a Nintendo Direct. Nintendo worked up to that level of relevance, just like how E3 did.
It's still important. Some Sony fanboys think otherwise, though.
I really don't get why many prefers youtube over a show like E3.
Like many forms of entertainment have their own big year show(Cannes for cinema, San Diego Comic con for comics/figures, etc), so does the video games with E3.
We still need that important days of the year to be more happy and hyped for our hobby, we still need the big announcements in a beautiful show instead of a youtube trailer, the happy moments like the Keanu appearance, the bombing of trailers, gameplay videos and interviews that will keep us busy for the rest of the year.
Not to mention the image of the company to the public.
Yea, a solo trailer or show like death stranding and states of play will make more noise in the silence but come on, it's not everything just numbers and they can easily coexist.
I really hope the companies will continue to support E3, will improve their shows and the Sony absence was only a bad exception.
Sony doesn't attend E3 one time and Playstation fans are this salty? Guys, PS5 is coming next year. Relax.
E3 isn't as important as it once was because of how the Internet has risen to prominence. But E3 as a concept will continue to be an important time of year for companies to generate excitement about their upcoming games and products. E3 might evolve from a traditional event in one location into something else, but the idea will remain important.
I only care about the "big" announcement, THAT is (probably) enough. But I do agree E3 needs more for presentation otherwise the less & less fans could care
To Sony Fanboys that aren’t interested in the gaming industry - no it’s not relevant when Sony aren’t there and it’s only about Sony when they are.
To the rest of us it’s vitally important to the gaming industry and a massive boost for smaller companies and talent. Shame a few of the bigger companies have lost sight of why it needs to exist.
Will you be asking this same question next year when Sony are back at E3 ?
I dont think E3 is going anywhere soon. I personally love e3 (even if it aint as big as it used to be). Its always exciting seeing predictions and speculations and rumors popping up all over the web and seeing what came true and what didnt. Its just fun for me. But I do see it getting replaced by the companies eventually just doing their own nintendo direct style streams
E3 for me is just another source of info i check and follow up on what interests me. So i would not miss E3 ending as there are many other sources for info like the recent Borderlands 3 presentation.
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