After three years of disruption, E3 - the Electronic Entertainment Expo - will return as a live, in-person event in 2023. Scheduled to run from June 13-16, the four-day event will once again be held in the Los Angeles Convention Center and for the first time will include full, separate days and spaces devoted specifically to industry and consumer interests. Following E3’s data breach in 2019 and the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic from 2020 through 2022, E3 participants and watchers are undoubtedly excited by the event’s return, but they may also be justified in wondering if it will actually happen as planned.
The 2023 E3 marks a return to business as usual for the gaming industry’s largest annual trade event, with some significant changes to the format. Differentiating its offering to target different kinds of attendees and so increase its relevance, the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) and E3 have released a schedule that will include three so-called “Business Days” (June 13-15), at which industry professionals and media can meet, network, and try out new and games in spaces dedicated to the business side of video gaming. “Gamer Days” will take place from June 15-16. Held in a separate space from the industry-only events, Gamer Days will allow of the general public to view and play forthcoming games while interacting with developers, content creators, and the media.
The people behind E3 seem to be pulling out all the stops in the return to an in-person show, to build excitement and avoid the disappointment of those events that tried to fill the void left by the 2022 E3 cancelation, like Summer Game Fest. Owned by the ESA, the industry’s advocacy organization, E3 in 2023 is being organized by ReedPop, which the official E3 announcement on Games Press describes as “the number one producer of pop culture events across the globe,” having organized such events as the New York Comic Con and the Eurogamer Expo. But the best-laid plans, as people worldwide have discovered over the last few years, can and do go awry, making it impossible to know if E3 will take place as scheduled, or if industry people and fans will actually attend. However, given the general return to normalcy after three years of pandemic-induced postponements, cancelations, and failed attempts to go online, it seems safe to say that E3 will happen in June 2023, barring any further unpredictable disruptions to the state of the world.
The Trials & Tribulations Of E3
There were game-industry trade shows prior to E3, but as video game sales and production took off in the 1990s it became clear to publishers and industry professionals that they needed a single industry showcase like E3 to display their new releases and market them to retailers. So, in 1995, E3 was officially born. Run as an industry-oriented trade show, E3 became the main event for publishers, developers, and retailers to meet, interact, and make deals and plans for the future of the video game industry.
In 2015, E3 began to it fans to the event. Recognizing that video game marketing had become dependent to a large degree on player enthusiasm and word of mouth, E3 began to allow more of the public to attend, leading (in 2016) to issues of crowding on the expo floor and complaints from industry professionals that they couldn’t take advantage of networking opportunities due to the congestion. In response, organizers subsequently tried to carve out special E3 schedules and dates for game publishers, with times and spaces reserved for industry-only participants and of the media to attend.
Beginning in 2019, things became rockier for E3 and the organizations behind it. In August of that year, it was discovered that the personal data of 2019 E3 participants was publicly available on the ESA’s website and had been accessed by unauthorized s. Though the ESA removed the information, it was subsequently discovered that past years’ data was similarly available online. Some people whose information was leaked, including some journalists, reported receiving death threats as a result, and the ESA scrambled to respond.
Then came COVID-19 and the entire world ground to a halt. In March 2020, the ESA announced the cancelation of E3 for that year. In 2021, organizers planned to hold a combined in-person and virtual E3. Promising that it would be the most intimate game reveal show ever, E3 2021 was later announced to be entirely online.
The 2021 virtual E3 did take place as scheduled, rebranded as the Electronic Entertainment Experience and running online from June 12-15 and free to all. But the event was generally regarded as underwhelming and, more importantly, redundant, given the online showcases of new games regularly produced by game publishers themselves. In 2022, given the appearance of the COVID Omicron variant in the United States, the E3 was once again canceled as both an in-person and virtual event, leaving the future of E3 in doubt.
The 2023 Return Is Critical For E3's Future
The recently announced return to a live, in-person format represents an opportunity for E3’s owners and organizers to reinvigorate the entire concept of the trade show while regaining E3’s place as a centerpiece of the video game industry. Hoping to avoid a repeat of 2021's largely underwhelming, even boring E3, organizers are already at work building excitement for 2023. According to the press release, Kyle Marsden-Kish, VP of Gaming for ReedPop, says the organizers’ vision for E3 “is to reunite the industry by re-establishing the traditional E3 week, bring back that spark, and restore E3’s role as a truly magical global showcase event for game creators and consumers.” E3’s planned Gamer Days will be one attempt to do that, expanding public access to the event and providing a dedicated theater for fans to view clips and promotions of forthcoming games. The 2023 E3 will also feature a series of digital events surrounding the in-person expo, in another attempt to integrate the live and virtual dimensions of the event that may be critical for its long-term survival.
After 2022's E3 was canceled, the 2023 E3 could mark the rejuvenation of the video game industry’s most important trade show and marketing event or signal its demise. The event’s owners and organizers seem to recognize the significance of the E3, and have already begun to drum up excitement for the expo, its new format, and the games likely to be featured there. But the question remains: will people attend? That remains to be seen, and to a great extent depends on events outside human control. But given recent problems and failures within the ESA and E3 itself, organizers can only hope that participants are willing to put their concerns aside and return to the in-person trade show.
Source: Games Press