After resolving to change its event from living to online-based attendance, which stemmed from concerns surrounding the rising numbers in omicron Covid-19 cases, the ESA suddenly takes on a more shadowy persona as Jeff Grubb announces the potential outright cancellation of E3 this year.
Owned and operated by the Entertainment Software Association, E3 acts as an annual gaming venue wherein some of the biggest titles are announced and demoed for the masses. Last year's E3 saw the event go all-virtual, which may well have impacted the prowess surrounding some of those big-name announcements, but it was still much better than being completely canceled - like 2020's E3 Expo (and potentially even 2022's).
GamesBeat writer and content creator Grubb has been at the center of innumerable leaks and rumors, so much so that there's an entire Reddit thread postulating his reliability as a scooper. The verdict: he's thoroughly reliable-most of the time.
Grubb took to YouTube early Monday morning to announce the news, claiming that "E3's been canceled. Well, physically it's been canceled; digitally, probably also canceled."
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Typically, E3 would be debuting around June with a live event based in Los Angeles. The Expo's departure would thus open a time slot for various reveals to be made outside of E3 (if the cancellation rumor is founded). However, last year's digital-only event left many in attendance feeling dissatisfied, to say the least.
A full-on cancellation of E3 would allow someone like Geoff Keighley to step in and requisition that time frame for his Summer Game Fest, which came hot out of the gates last year with that fiery Elden Ring gameplay trailer as its end cap sequence.
Keighley has had his hands in the gaming industry for quite some time, handling The Game Awards as well as the aforementioned Summer Game Fest, which first debuted back in 2020. Although the loss of E3 would be quite painful, it would allow SGF to shine.
Despite its long-lived acclaim and beloved nature, given several years' worth of shows introducing some of gaming's most astounding experiences, E3 has been met largely with ever-evolving dissatisfaction ever since 2019's disastrous doxing incident. Since then, the Expo has limped on and sadly hasn't really reclaimed that regal-like status it once had.
Still, E3 is an industry must-have in any shape or form it must take. Most prominent among reveals and hype at the Expo are little-known indie experiences that arguably deserve the limelight far more than most of the triple A powerhouses.
Despite the plentitude of exhibitors pulling out of the event, the CTA still somehow made CES 2022 work (and, as one of the many in-person attendees, I'm quite glad they did). There's no emulating that experience of meeting new people, discovering the many quirks and insides about a game firsthand, delving headlong into the fascinating points that make up a developer's mind as they diagnose specific levels in the midst of a demo.
E3, in person, is something truly special. Hopefully, the ESA can find a way to make the event happen in some capacity, but as of yet, it's looking quite dicey for E3 2022.
