Hey, remember E3? It used to be the biggest annual event on the gaming calendar, before publishers (like Sony, specifically) started pulling out and hosting their own online showcases. And then the coronavirus pandemic hit and put an end to any kind of hope for a gathering of companies, press, and gamers in Los Angeles last year. In short, these are desperate times for the ESA — the organisation behind E3 — and it's clearly keen to get the ball rolling again this summer.
According to a detailed report by VGC, the ESA is pushing for an all-digital E3 2021. VGC writes: "The ESA’s intention is to hold multiple two-hour keynote sessions from games partners, an awards show, a June 14 preview night and other smaller streams from game publishers, influencers and media partners. The broadcast event would be supplemented by media previews the week before, as well as demos released on consumer platforms, according to the ESA’s proposal."
But in order for E3 to work, publishers need to be involved — and it doesn't sound like any of the industry's heavy hitters are sold on the ESA's plans. At the time of writing, we don't know if any publishers have signed up for E3 2021, and we doubt that companies such as Sony and EA — who pulled out of E3 in rather public fashion — will be at all eager to return.
Money's also a factor, of course. It's no secret that being a part of E3 is expensive — companies have to cough up considerable sums in order to join the ESA's roster. And in these uncertain times, it's likely that a lot of publishers would rather just do their own thing and budget it appropriately.
In any case, an ESA spokesperson told VGC: "We are having great conversations with publishers, developers and companies across the board, and we look forward to sharing details about their involvement soon." We'll have to see how it all pans out, but we wouldn't get your hopes up for anything huge.
Would you welcome the return of E3 later this year? Or should publishers just go their own way? Get ready for another summer of lacklustre digital events in the comments section below.
[source videogameschronicle.com]
Comments 29
Man I remember when people were livid about Nintendo pulling out of E3 to host E3 Nintendo Directs as opposed to live press conferences
If anything they were way ahead of their time on that front. I think the Summer Game Fest and the advent of so many publisher-led video presentations have finally made those people realize how much more cost effective and beneficial the online presentation format is as opposed to setting up stuff like props, booking a venue, hiring additional presenters outside of studio staff etc.
I did miss E3 last year as it would of been great to see the PS5 and Xbox shown off. Maybe Cyberpunk would of been playable as well lol
E3 is done, Geoff Keighley has taken over their spot as they failed to adapt last year and all of them have realised they can just have their own Direct style videos to get their news across
@Total_Weirdo Its still not playable now so had no chance bk then lol.
I love E3's. Went to a few back when they were a big deal. I'd love to see a comeback. Used to be the greatest single event for finding out what everyone's working on.
@TheFrenchiestFry I’m hoping SEGA will be in it.
Nah, E3 is done. They have no chance unfortunately
I would love a return to the glory days of E3 but it’s over. Individual presentations are the way forward even if I’m not a huge fan and Christ knows when Nintendo will bother.
And I want to marry Karen Gillan, doesn't mean we all get what we want.
Moving entirely to the digital platform only ensures that E3 completely abandons the only thing that would make it special in 2021. For better or worse, it’s not even a dinosaur, it’s bones.
It made sense in the pre-internet, pre-free-video-hosting days, but there isn't much point to it now and, unfortunately for the ESA, virtually all the publishers and developers now realize it. Why pay someone millions of dollars only to be overshadowed by someone bigger than you? Why spend 3-6 months creating an E3 demo when you could just work on the game instead?
I just want a Nintendo presentation and a Sony presentation
I would say to the people wanting to make E3 happen please make sure you can confirm there will be some heavy hitters shown off that make it worth the hype and attention.
Even before COVID ended it in 2020 the last few E3s were just really uninteresting because there was nothing spectacular being shown.
Take us back to E3 2015!
E3 used to be hype. Now it's just a shell of it's former self.
That cash cow is cooked
E3’s over but I do miss the excitement looking forward to it, then getting big game reveals, terrible stage presentations and just the hype surrounding it.
E3 used to be a giant deal for me and my group of friends. I've long accepted those days are over, but I'll still miss them.
I really miss E3, and I think this year should have been proof to everyone how much we need an E3 like event to coordinate all the industry news. It was a disastrous mess with bits and bobs of information strewn across 10 months all in random times all over the place. I've gone from planning E3 week like a national holiday to basically having no idea what games are even upcoming, even while paying attention to sites like this. TwitterBook doesn't exist on my planet, I don't really care what they're saying there, I'm not going to notice. I try to pay attention to individual publisher streams but without a fixed schedule at E3, it's all over the place and I end up missing or just not caring about most of them. The up swing is my video game spending is probably down 60-70% without E3 showcasing all the things I want to watch out for, if we exclude the console purchases that I just count on every 7 years or so. The down-side for the industry is my video game spending is down 60-70% without E3. They may have to declare industry-wide bankruptcy as a result.
We really need a "big" event for the industry for everyone to gather in a hype blitz. Not 40 minutes of Ubisoft montages at 3:00PM on a random Thursday in September. Something is really missing without it. Keighley is a laughable joke of a replacement. It's all plastic, and no meat, and questionable jokes of an award (and no, that's not a TLoU mention.)
E3's glory years are behind it, but it could still reinvent. You know who probably needs a big E3-like event more than Sony, MS, or Nintendo? Indies.
You can see it all for only $24.99!!!
Haven’t seen much of State of Play or any major Nintendo Directs. So ya know what? I’m all for it. If E3 can pull it off.
This reads rather like E3's death certificate. It's a shame - while I (like most people) had a lot of complaints about E3 in recent years, it was a lot more convenient to have almost all the video game news for the next year condensed into three days of presentations rather than the piecemeal nonsense that went on last summer. Hopefully publishers can find a way to put all their shows a lot closer to one another, so that it's not an absolute hassle trying to catch them all.
E3 should evolve to not include any big publishers anymore. The big guys don't really need extra advertisement and can put on these events themselves. Instead, E3 should showcase smaller indie companies that would otherwise be overshadowed. Of course that means it should be made free or at least cheap to participate.
E3 died so quietly, without much fizzle
It was there and then it wasn’t
COVID
A short poem I wrote. Hope you enjoy it.
E3 shot itself in the foot multiple times with exorbitant fees.
I think this pandemic has spend up the process of the inevitable in so many ways. Putting an end to E3 is one of them.
I miss the old days of E3. Before the online videos and Nintendo Direct. It has not been that way in a very, very long time though. And in all honesty, why have a digital event? When companies can just post whatever whenever
They really are determined to shoe-horn in tedious social media "influencers" arent they, something that is completely the polar opposite end of what gamers and what the gaming community want.
If they really want to continue, just be a showcase for up and coming indies, AA titles etc shine a spotlight on those games and devs and also why the heck would you want an awards show in the middle of summer lol scrap that nonsense.
Never cared for it the times are terrible im happy with the events put out by studios just as easy.
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