You know the music: with the approach of each summer for decades now, E3 takes place and with it, a general euphoria throughout the gaming sphere. So certainly, the event has been turned upside down in recent years : first with the withdrawal of one of its flagship players, Sony, which now prefers to hold its own shows at a distance, but also with the COVID-19 crisis which even forced the organizers to cancel the 2024 edition.
Last year, the show returned with a fully dematerialized edition, a format to which many are now accustomed. There are many who nevertheless hope for a real return to normal, especially when we know that other major shows have already taken the plunge like the very recent CES Las Vegas 2024, despite strong criticism because of the pandemic context. So, what about E3 2024?
The ESA (the Entertainment Software Association, the company behind the show) has just clarified the situation: E3 2024 will once again be held in a… digital format. But for society, this is not a big deal.
Mass is said: it is not this year that E3 will take place in Los Angeles to welcome its some 50,000 professionals and other 15,000 fans of video games. The reason could not be more obvious, and obviously due to the health context considered unstable, due to the relaunch of the epidemic.
“Due to the current health risks associated with COVID-19 and its potential impact on the safety of exhibitors and attendees, E3 will not take place in person in 2024, ESA said in a statement to Gamesbeat. Nevertheless, the organizers assure to stay “incredibly excited about the future of E3”, and “Look forward to announcing more details soon.”
To add a layer, the firm also says “Excited about the possibilities of an online event” : if to say the opposite would have been surprising, we must admit that the video game landscape has adapted particularly well to the dematerialized format, not so much preventing big shows and, above all, bombastic announcements.
Note that the GDC (“Game Developers Conference”), for its part, will be held on site, in physics, from March 21 to 25.
The good old times
