Here’s a surprise, but it looks like the biggest gaming event of the year, E3, has decided to not take place in 2022. After initially purely canceling the in-person event, it has now decided to also not move forward with a digital event. It first made the waves when Razer’s Will Powers shared a tweet on his official account teasing that the event may have been canceled before IGN went on to confirm it.
It was back in 2019 when the event first got canceled before getting a digital-only version last year. There’s currently still no official statement by ESA, but it seems that ongoing discussions were happening in the background for quite some time but the ESA not making a public statement on anything has lead to frustrations. As a result, the choice ended with them completely moving on from the event overall.
This announcement, however, does not mean that E3 is over. It seems the plan is to come back stronger in 2023. Of course, it also strongly depends on the third-parties potentially joining in as other opportunities arise in their absence. Summer Game Fest is a definite return for this summer and has planted itself as quite the competitor. We’ll see what 2023 has in store for us and how the ESA plans to make its return.