It's not looking good for a possible revival of the E3 video game trade show. The 2023 version of the event, which was supposed to be held earlier this month at the Los Angeles Convention Center, was canceled back in March. Now it looks like the planned 2024 and 2025 events won't be held at that venue either.
The Los Angeles City Tourism Department posted information on its regular meeting (PDF file) (via Eurogamer) which was held on June 21. The meeting included a slide of the city's convention sales and noted that the numbers included "E3 cancellations for 2024 and 2025".
That would seem to confirm that the Entertainment Software Association, the trade group that owns E3, has decided to not hold the event at the LA Convention Center. It's still possible that the group could decide to hold E3 in another location, but so far, the ESA has yet to make any announcements about the future of the trade show.
E3 2023 was going to be the trade show's first physical edition since 2019, due to the Covid-19 pandemic. However, major gaming publishers, including all three console makers (Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo) decided not to have any exhibits on the show floor.
While E3 was canceled this year and may be gone forever, the video game industry still held a number of virtual events during the E3 time period in early June. That included Microsoft's Xbox Games Showcase. It also included events like the Summer Games Fest, which included a ton of new game announcements, trailers, and other content from a variety of publishers and developers.
Of course, there are still plenty of other video game-based events that people can attend, such as the various versions of the PAX Expo. There's also the massive Gamescom in Cologne, Germany, which will be held this year from August 23-27, 2023.
Update: Engadget reports that according to an ESA statement, the trade group "is currently in conversation with ESA members and other stakeholders about E3 2024 (and beyond). No final decisions about the events have been made at this time."
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