There will be no E3 this year either. One of the biggest events in the video game industry has been cancelled for the second year in a row. The organisers of the show recently announced that the event “failed to attract enough interest”.

In the past, E3 attracted a global audience, including us, who travelled to Los Angeles for well over a week each year to be introduced to the latest announcements from industry giants like Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony at the various keynotes and booths.

Similar to Gamescom, E3 is or was in its many good years not only a business event, but rather a meeting place for everyone professionally involved in the topic of games. A kind of worldwide class reunion of people who have often made their passion their profession. And that was important. Because basically, games are like many (former) niches: People know each other. They “grew up” together. The beer after (or already during) the fair, the parties afterwards and the reunion with friends, colleagues and also customers were important. For the job, but also for the heart.

In recent years, however, more and more big game companies – also due to the Corona pandemic – have organised their own livestream events to present and market their products. These direct connections to consumers have led to E3 becoming less and less important, as it no longer offers any added value that companies could not achieve directly online. Instead, digital events have taken over E3’s role as the industry’s marketing event.

This year, in addition to Sony, Xbox and Nintendo, Ubisoft, Sega and Tencent have also decided against attending E3 and in favour of their own presentations and events. Online.

Despite attempts by organisers to save E3 by, for example, hiring ReedPop, the company behind events such as Star Wars Celebration and New York Comic Con, to rebrand the show, it was clearly too late to win back corporate interest.

For us at Ranieri Gaming, E3 was for many years an important event to meet friends, colleagues and customers and to exchange ideas in person. Something we will miss again this year with all the “digital” out there.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)