Every year around this time, the collective gaming world has decided whether they enjoyed E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo) or not, and for a few years now, there has been another question on people’s minds. Is E3 still relevant? With big publishers like EA and Sony not attending this year’s show, the question is even more heated, as the possibility of E3 seems grimmer than ever.
This year has been a difficult year for a lot of people, and it was understandable for publishers to pull out of the show for many reasons, but two of the biggest publishers had already made this commitment a long time ago, before Covid was an excuse. Not just that, but ever since 2017/18 the shows numbers have also been dwindling with many saying the death of E3 was near. My opinion on the matter is that E3 has been an essential part of the gaming community for as long as I can remember. For the show not to exist would be a massive void in the gaming world. Although, I don’t believe E3 as an expo needs to exist per se, but I do believe there should be a conference that brings all of the publishers from around the world together, whether that be E3 or another expo.
The reason I think something like this still needs to exist stems from my childhood. I remember seeing pictures of all the journalists that were able to attend E3, and how much of a good time they all had being able to interview game developers and publishers. It was one of the shows that had all the publishers in gaming world attend. Instead of doing a day interview with one publisher that took time to setup, gaming journalists had an all you can eat buffet of talent to chat with.
It wasn’t just exciting for game journalists, but the excitement also reached gamers around the world. This was like a gamer’s Christmas Wishlist. Every game seen at the show was then available to pre-order at your closest gaming store, and at least half the games shown would come out at the end of the year or early into the following year. Either way, after E3 pre-orders for every single game shot up, showing the impact it had on fans.
In the end, I would like to see E3 go on in the future, as I did quite enjoy the show from a spectator’s view. If E3 does end up folding, I would still like to see a similar convention replace it. I understand most big companies can do their own shows whenever they want, but there will always be something special about a show that features all of the companies.
Do you still think E3 is relevant? Let us know in the comments below or on our Discord!
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