CURRENT STATE OF E3

     To put it bluntly, E3 is not in a good place. Attendance numbers have been steadily declining, Sony is skipping the event for the second year in a row, and last year there was the disastrous data breach of reporters and attendees’ personal information. To top it all off, Geoff Keighley, a game industry leader, will no longer be attending the event as, as he stated to The Hollywood Reporter and other publications, that he “did not feel comfortable with the current state of E3”, and “believed that the event needed to evolve”. Keighley attended E3 for twenty-five years in a row, and also hosted E3 Coliseum since 2017, as well. While any one of these factors is disappointing, added all together, it paints a very bleak picture. Xbox and Nintendo remain committed to the event, which fans greatly appreciate, but the event is clearly suffering from something as it struggles to move forward in the modern era of entertainment. This is not an “E3 is dead!” post, but rather an honest assessment that things need to change for the event. 

     E3 has long been considered a gamer’s holiday, a massive celebration of the gaming industry, with exciting new reveals, demos, and surprises. But, with major companies such as Sony pulling out, annual features being cancelled, and people’s personal information being breached, it certainly would make one less eager to attend. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure Xbox and Nintendo will have great showcases, especially Xbox as they all out blitz for Series X releasing this Holiday. It just seems as if E3 is at a major crossroads. It’s time to figure things out and go full throttle into the modern era and ideas, or just pack it up, and admit the concept is now outdated. I truly hope they knock it out of the park, and make E3 the spectacle that it can be. Gamers love E3, and it’d really be a shame to lose it.