There are conflicting reports over whether or not E3 2024 and E3 2025 will take place. A new document from the Los Angeles City Tourism Commission claims that both E3 2024 and E3 2025 have been canceled, but a spokesperson for the Entertainment Software Association claims no final decision has been made yet.
For over 20 years, the ESA held an event called E3 each June, where companies from around the video game industry would come together and show off their upcoming games. It got canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, and the ESA took 2022 off after a rough digital-only show in 2021. The expo was set to return in 2023, but was canceled in March after Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft, Ubisoft, and other game companies pulled out of the event. E3’s future was put into question after that, and now it looks like it might not be coming back for the foreseeable future.
This didn’t come as an official announcement from the ESA; it was a footnote in the June 21 meeting notes from the City Tourism Commission in Los Angeles, the city in which E3 was typically held. On a page outlining year-to-date citywide convention sales for this fiscal year, a footnote at the bottom of the page states that its calculation for this “includes E3 cancellations for 2024 & 2025.”
Despite LA’s claim, the ESA isn’t willing to say E3 2024 is officially canceled just yet. While the ESA did not comment on the future of E3 after canceling the 2023 expo, it provided a statement to Axios after this news latest broke. “ESA is currently in conversation with ESA members and other stakeholders about E3 2024 (and beyond), and no final decisions about the events have been made at this time,” a spokesperson says. It’s not the resounding confirmation of a return that fans of E3 might have hoped for, but it’s good to hear that E3 2024 could still potentially happen.
While it’s unknown if E3 will return over the next two years, the industry has more than made up for its absence. Video game developers and publishers now hold lots of digital game showcases, and those who are fans of in-person events can look forward to the return of Summer Game Fest and its associated Play Days event next June.
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