When will E3 be back? Never, apparently, as the Entertainment Software Association, the group behind the iconic gaming event, has updated its website with a message that can confirm E3 has passed away.
“After more than two decades of E3, each one bigger than the last, the time has come to say goodbye,” the message reads.
“Thanks for the memories.”
As noted by the usual gaming websites, the death of E3 isn’t all that surprising, with the event having lost much of its steam in recent years with the leave of major companies that include Sony, which jumped ship with its PlayStation brand in 2019.
COVID-19 certainly didn’t help, either, as the pandemic forced E3 to shift to an online format for its 2021 show, something that, in turn, made game makers realize that they could just do the same thing and skip E3 altogether.
And while E3 2020 and E3 2022 were both canceled due to concerns over the COVID-19 pandemic, E3 2023 ended up getting canceled as well after the organizers realized that publishers no longer cared about the show.
In an interview with The Washington Post, Stanley Pierre-Louis, president and CEO of the ESA, shared some of his thoughts as to why E3 has come to an end:
There were fans who were invited to attend in the later years, but it really was about a marketing and business model for the industry and being able to provide the world with information about new products.
Companies now have access to consumers and to business relations through a variety of means, including their own individual showcases.
The first E3 was hosted at the Los Angeles Convention Center, in May 1995.
Discussion (7 replies)
Join Discussion →E3 hasn't been the same for many years, so nothing of any real value has been lost.
Let's be honest ... it was the loss of booth babes that led to E3's demise.
Honestly.... Yea. We're at a time where the only way women are allowed to be sexy for money is pron or "influencers". Commercial sexy is otherwise DOA. It doesn't make sense to me.
I loved how Tom's summarized this.
Not going to lie. I always found the booth babes kind of sleazy, and the concept a little pathetic. Like, no one is going to care about your product, but put a busty chick infront of it, and now they'll pay attention? Lame.
Guilty as charged. I probably am not paying attention to what they hope I am, but it’s exactly what they paid for
Not in the least actually... at least that's not how I see it. ESPECIALLY today..
1. I can research a product and advertisements on it without having to go to a show or watch anything about a show/even they attend no problem at all.
2. Booth babes have by and large been replaced with 'free' 'cosplay contests' for these events. I mean who are we fooling here right? It's the same damn thing except now you have people making money or trying to by being 'influencers' that are making 'cosplay' outfits that are essentially the same damn thing as booth babes. Except now it's people making their own and taking some pride in craftsmanship and possibly knowing the IP even BETTER that they are essentially advertising for.
3. If you want to draw visitors at these less corporate events you have 'booth babes' or 'car girls' or whatever the eff you want to call it. Heck it could be 'hardware hunks' I mean really whatever.
Now it is criminal or distasteful to sell sexy to people. I mean... unless you're selling YOURSELF as being sexy or behind the scenes helping 'influencers' sell themselves. In all honesty I think the whole 'influencers' thing is FAR more shady in reality than booth babes ever were.
I have a friend I met online, we played some MMO's together. We had a person join our guild that was one of these 'influencers' . She marketed herself well, is/was very attractive, and got many guys in that guild to throw money at her. One of them was a lawyer who literally paid to get her to come to the US from India, attend college, paid for her place and everything with the idea that they had found true love. Not even 2 months after arriving she ghosted, found a local guy to take over the funding and he was gone... heartbroken. He'd been raked over the coals through emotional manipulation. She put in real time and attention to get what she wanted and moved on.
I know that isn't a one off... and there are articles a plenty online you can find about influencers doing the same or having similar or worse things even happen to them. (Think Saudi Arabia, private yachts and 'influencers' getting 10's of thousands of dollars for ahem... all access cruises where the access is to them.). It's shady as Eff, and with less protection for both the 'fan' and the 'influencer'. (replace fan with john, and influencer with Prostitute if you haven't caught on yet.)
At least with booth babes yea some guys are sleazeballs and think they can 'get' them or whatever. But they can be walked off. Otherwise they are paid to be nice it's an understood thing. And their are protections. With influencers it's the wild freaking west and tantamount to well.. prostitution. I'm sure there are dark sides to some booth babes... Maybe I was a babe in the woods back in the day when that was a real thing. I remember going to car shows and trying to talk to the 'car girls' that were there... lol.. sigh. good times good times...but it was never 'HARMFUL'.
I'm NOT trying to validate selling Sex and degrading people. But I am saying that pretending removing booth babes removes the sleaze is bullshit. It's there... and it's worse than ever. It's just removed from 'corporations' or 'Marketing'... by a few steps.