The ESA might be signaling its intent to hold a show next year, but it appears that E3 is gone for good. After years of awkward stumbling as it attempted to keep up with a rapidly changing industry, followed by a pandemic that disrupted gatherings all over the globe, the ESA has canceled the conference for 2022. And I suspect, more than likely, forever.
The global games conference had been struggling to transform itself in recent years, and we had been seeing the signs of its waning relevance even after its ill-fated attempts to scale down. First came Nintendo cancelling its traditional stage conferences for prerecorded Nintendo Direct presentations. Then, E3 transitioned to a public show, an awkward step that made conditions less-than-ideal for both the fans and journalists alike. Then publishers like EA and Sony started skipping the event altogether–albeit with their own events that just happened to take place in Los Angeles around mid-June, when they could count on all the media being in town.
