E3 could be gone forever as cancelation plans revealed

Details from the Los Angeles City Tourism Board of Commissioners confirm cancelations for E3 2024 and 2025.

Long heralded as gaming’s biggest show, E3 was set to return in 2023 under management by ReedPop. The event was canned in March, however, with an email to employees noting that it simply did not garner enough interest.

Now the future looks even more grim for the long-running trade show. As spotted by Wario64, the Los Angeles City Tourism Board of Commissioners has confirmed that E3 is not returning in 2024 or 2025.

It’s possible, then, that E3 2021 marked the end of an era that won’t soon see the light of day again.

The first E3 was hosted nearly 25 years ago in May 1995, with the event being held at the Los Angeles Convention Center. Interestingly enough, akin to what forced the E3 2023 cancellation, not many were willing to throw their support behind the original show – Sega and Sony backed out, leaving only Nintendo to stand in for the biggest companies of the day.

Though E3 went on to enjoy years of incredible highs, a few trouble spots slowed things down in recent years. Most notably, the ESA unintentionally doxxed thousands of attendees during E3 2019, engendering waves of distrust between the show’s organizer and those impacted, including journliasts, streamers, and content creators.

Evidently, the trade show couldn’t quite recover after the global pandemic led to E3 2020’s cancellation. The gaming event’s 2021 return left much to be desired, too, with fans and companies turning much of their attention to the Geoff Keighley-hosted Summer Game Fest.

Suffice it to say, today’s news appears to foreshadow the unfortunate end of an industry-wide tradition.