E3 2022 Cancelled, Including the Online Event

[btarunr]

The Electronic Software Association (ESA,) the body organizing E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo), is reportedly sending e-mails informing top marketing reps from the gaming industry that it has cancelled E3 2022. This includes the online/digital event that was meant to succeed last year's event. This is yet another sign that trade-shows cannot be organized in the digital format, and that merely clumping a few participants' online events across a schedule does not amount to a trade-show, a major aspect of which are the human interactions during and beyond each individual event, or the show-floor—something not possible in the digital format.

Update 20:35 UTC: We have an excerpt from the e-mail being sent out to delegates from the ESA:



View at TechPowerUp Main Site | Source

 

[lexluthermiester]

This is yet another sign that trade-shows cannot be organized in the digital format

True! So what do we need to do? Set the pandemic aside and get on with life! Carry one with the trade shows. Just enact some common-sense precautions. Require masks and strongly advise and even nag about personal hygiene & sanitation practices.

They didn't need to cancel the event. They needed to use their heads for something other than a seat-cushion.

 

[_Flare]

is this because the lack of GPUs in gamerhands or covid ... i´m just curious

 

[trsttte]

True! So what do we need to do? Set the pandemic aside and get on with life! Carry one with the trade shows. Just enact some common-sense precautions. Require masks and strongly advise and even nag about personal hygiene & sanitation practices.

They didn't need to cancel the event. They needed to use their heads for something other than a seat-cushion.

This is more about general uncertainty, they cant set up an event then have to cancel at the last minute. Though I don't get why even the online showcase is cancelled, didn't they have anything interesting to show and decided to just cancelling with the easy covid excuse? Sounds more like it to me.

 

[Space Lynx]

the world has moved on from covid. its time to get back to normal. this is just nonsense.

UK is doing just fine, fully open, dont even have to stay home anymore if you test positive. hospitalization really hasn't gotten horrible either, vaccines have saved the day, time to move on.

you don't want your booster fine get sick, but rest of us with boosters agree its time to move on, so eh.

 

[lexluthermiester]

is this because the lack of GPUs in gamerhands or covid ... i´m just curious

It's not going to be your first point because E3 has always been a show where console gaming shares a lot of the spotlight. It's the pandemic and little else.

Though I don't get why even the online showcase is cancelled

Likely because no one cared enough to watch it. But that's only a guess.. I didn't. For me, it's live events or stuff it..

the world has moved on from covid.

Not just yet. Omicron is still proving to be very nasty. However, people, governments and nations are trying to move on.

 

[bug]

I miss the days when hype around a game was generated by word of mouth. More important, it was generated after a game was released, so it was based on actual games, not marketing budgets.

 

[lexluthermiester]

I miss the days when hype around a game was generated by word of mouth. More important, it was generated after a game was released, so it was based on actual games, not marketing budgets.

Right there with you!!

 

[RedBear]

is this because the lack of GPUs in gamerhands or covid ... i´m just curious

Considering the current trend of decreasing GPU prices this might have been a good chance for the industry to promote new games. Either the critics of the online 2021 event convinced them that it was a waste of time and money or they simply didn't have much to show.

 

[Lifeless222]

is this because the lack of GPUs in gamerhands or covid ... i´m just curious

War in Ukraine (which will have very serious political and economic consequences).

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
Interesting
What is "free to play" it seems to be on a lot of gaming sites ?

All they trade is money for a game lol

 

[timta2]

It's probably difficult to have a trade show, to show off your goods, when you don't have any worth mentioning.

 

[The red spirit]

It's probably difficult to have a trade show, to show off your goods, when you don't have any worth mentioning.

Hard to care about some stupid show, when there's projected food shortage, power shortage, supply chain for second time kicked in the plums and Russian may launch nukes and there's international recession.

 

[LabRat 891]

E3 will return in 2023...

I'm extremely doubtful.

 

[Nater]

E3 organizers need to shut off the TV.

 

[DrCR]

At first I presumed they are simply hardcore koolaid drinkers, but…

Does the top management get a paycheck regardless? If so, at the perhaps risk of making themselves and E3 irrelevant, canceling the event, doing nothing, and getting a 1 year paid vacation could have been too temping to refuse.

 

[Ruru]

the world has moved on from covid. its time to get back to normal. this is just nonsense.

UK is doing just fine, fully open, dont even have to stay home anymore if you test positive. hospitalization really hasn't gotten horrible either, vaccines have saved the day, time to move on.

you don't want your booster fine get sick, but rest of us with boosters agree its time to move on, so eh.

I totally forgot the flu after the Russo-Ukrainian war broke out.

I miss the days when hype around a game was generated by word of mouth. More important, it was generated after a game was released, so it was based on actual games, not marketing budgets.

Exactly. Back in the day when I was a kid and didn't have an internet access, reading about games from magazines was billion times more interesting than what it is today.

 

[mechtech]

I miss the days when hype around a game was generated by word of mouth. More important, it was generated after a game was released, so it was based on actual games, not marketing budgets.

Pepperridge farm remembers.

 

[Bwaze]

Isn't there a bunch of products that companies teased or even "launched" last year, and year before that, that didn't come to market due to parts shortages?

That could be a valid cause for companires not wanting to commit to promise new products they perhaps can't deliver to market? Or not wanting to participate in an event unveiling the same product for a third year in a row?

 

[claes]

E3 is primarily for games, not physical products.

 

[Pumper]

People only ever cared about the trailers, not the trash in between filled with celebrities who don't give a shit about gaming. You don't need an event to post your game trailer online.

 

[Chomiq]

I miss the E3...





... of old:

 

[the54thvoid]

E3 could easily go ahead. Large open space (high ceiling halls), good airflow and sensible precautions (as mentioned above) would mitigate a tonne of risks. Maybe ditching E3 is seen as a cost saving to many companies, hidden under the guise of safety. The costs of transport, platform, staff hospitality - I imagine it's not cheap and as much as companies make megabucks, every faceless CFO like to penny pinch wherever possible, using whatever excuse possible.

Spoiler: Boring Covid bit

Though, to mention the omi-lurgy, in my work we're having huge issues with staffing due to people off sick with Covid. And @CallandorWoT - the hospital situation is bad over here. But - and this is very important - Covid isn't sending people to hospital so much as people in hospital are tested and they're finding lots of Covid (and those people then need to isolated from other vulnerable patients). That has a knock on effect on other services.

 

[bug]

E3 could easily go ahead. Large open space (high ceiling halls), good airflow and sensible precautions (as mentioned above) would mitigate a tonne of risks. Maybe ditching E3 is seen as a cost saving to many companies, hidden under the guise of safety. The costs of transport, platform, staff hospitality - I imagine it's not cheap and as much as companies make megabucks, every faceless CFO like to penny pinch wherever possible, using whatever excuse possible.

Spoiler: Boring Covid bit

Though, to mention the omi-lurgy, in my work we're having huge issues with staffing due to people off sick with Covid. And @CallandorWoT - the hospital situation is bad over here. But - and this is very important - Covid isn't sending people to hospital so much as people in hospital are tested and they're finding lots of Covid (and those people then need to isolated from other vulnerable patients). That has a knock on effect on other services.

The question is, in world where information is ubiquitous, what value does a show about video games add?

 

[Chomiq]

Weren't we suppose to be over the event cancellation period? My company is planning a corporate retreat in May and that's like 200+ people from all over the country.