ESA denies E3 2024 and 2025 have been canceled, despite LA tourism board’s claims

By Tomas Franzese Updated June 22, 2023

There are conflicting reports over whether or not E3 2024 and E3 2025 will take place. A new document from the Los Angeles City Tourism Commission claims that both E3 2024 and E3 2025 have been canceled, but a spokesperson for the Entertainment Software Association claims no final decision has been made yet.

For over 20 years, the ESA held an event called E3 each June, where companies from around the video game industry would come together and show off their upcoming games. It got canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, and the ESA took 2022 off after a rough digital-only show in 2021. The expo was set to return in 2023, but was canceled in March after Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft, Ubisoft, and other game companies pulled out of the event. E3’s future was put into question after that, and now it looks like it might not be coming back for the foreseeable future.

This didn’t come as an official announcement from the ESA; it was a footnote in the June 21 meeting notes from the City Tourism Commission in Los Angeles, the city in which E3 was typically held. On a page outlining year-to-date citywide convention sales for this fiscal year, a footnote at the bottom of the page states that its calculation for this “includes E3 cancellations for 2024 & 2025.”

The document claiming E3 2024 and E3 2025 have been canceled. — Los Angeles City Tourism Commission

Despite LA’s claim, the ESA isn’t willing to say E3 2024 is officially canceled just yet. While the ESA did not comment on the future of E3 after canceling the 2023 expo, it provided a statement to Axios after this news latest broke. “ESA is currently in conversation with ESA members and other stakeholders about E3 2024 (and beyond), and no final decisions about the events have been made at this time,” a spokesperson says. It’s not the resounding confirmation of a return that fans of E3 might have hoped for, but it’s good to hear that E3 2024 could still potentially happen.

While it’s unknown if E3 will return over the next two years, the industry has more than made up for its absence. Video game developers and publishers now hold lots of digital game showcases, and those who are fans of in-person events can look forward to the return of Summer Game Fest and its associated Play Days event next June.

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Tomas Franzese is a Staff Writer at Digital Trends, where he reports on and reviews the latest releases and exciting…

Gaming

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ESA President and CEO Stan Pierre-Louis said in an interview with The Washington Post that E3 2023 will combine both in-person and digital elements. He attributed the success of last year's virtual E3 to the expanse of its reach to fans and journalists around the world who couldn't afford to fly to Los Angeles for the convention or couldn't attend it for other reasons. He added that people still want to connect and network with each other in person.

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Xbox and Bethesda detail (non-E3) summer showcase

The Xbox and Bethesda Games Showcase takes place on June 12.

With this year's E3 conference completely canceled, companies are taking the season for game reveals and showcases into their own hands. To that end, Xbox has revealed its own E3-season presentation, the purposefully-named Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase.

https://twitter.com/Xbox/status/1519662855892594689

Gaming

With E3 2022 canceled, these are the summer gaming events to watch

We learned this week that 2022 will be the second year since 1995 to not have any kind of E3 expo. While the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) says E3's physical and digital cancelation this year enables it to "devote all our energy and resources to delivering a revitalized physical and digital E3 experience next summer," it also raises questions regarding how game announcements will happen this summer. Companies like Microsoft and Nintendo often tie big reveals to E3, so what is the industry's plan now that E3 2022 is officially canceled?
So far, we only know of a couple of events that will take place, though there's still time for a lot more to be announced. For those wondering how E3 2022's cancelation will impact summer 2022's game reveal landscape, we've broken down everything that is and isn't happening -- and that might happen -- in the coming months.
What's not happening
E3's absence leaves a crater in the usual gaming hype cycle. Typically, the yearly event took place for a week in Los Angeles and served as a spot where game publishers could announce and advertise their upcoming slates of titles and game-related products. In 2020, the ESA canceled the event due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but it returned digitally in 2021 with mixed results.

On March 31, the event organizers at the ESA confirmed that there would be no digital or physical E3 event this year. That was quite surprising as more and more in-person events are returning, and the ESA even demonstrated that it could hold the event digitally before. The event may return in 2023, but this year the E3 event that typically consolidates many gaming announcements to one week in June won't play out like normal.
Outside of E3, we also know that EA won't hold its yearly EA Play Live event this summer. Typically, the publisher has its own events outside of E3, but chose not to this year because "this year things aren't lining up to show you everything on one date." That means that if we get new information on titles like the Dead Space remake or the next Dragon Age and Mass Effect, it won't be at an E3-adjacent event.
What is happening
There are still some major gaming events that will take place this summer. This June, the biggest one is Geoff Keighley's Summer Game Fest. The creator of The Game Awards plans to hold a Summer Game Fest Kickoff Livestream full of new trailers and announcements. Last year's event featured the release date of Elden Ring, so there are certainly high expectations surrounding the showcase, especially as E3 won't be drawing away any reveals. An indie-focused Day of the Devs presentation and other Summer Game Fest-branded events are also expected to take place this June. Keighley tweeted that Summer Game Fest festivities "will be less than one month this year."
IGN confirmed that its Summer of Gaming event would also take place in June and feature exclusive trailers, gameplay, and interviews. Bethesda has also teased that it will show Starfield this summer, and we're supposed to get another look at Final Fantasy XVI soon.
As for in-person events, a couple of them are happening later in the summer. Gamescom, a European gaming expo equivalent to E3, will happen in person in Cologne, Germany. In Japan, the Tokyo Game Show will be the final big in-person summer event between September 15 and 18. While E3 might not be happening, it's clear that some digital showcases will happen this summer and that events outside of America are still on track to take place in person.