It seems very likely that the biggest event on the video game calendar for the past 25 years, E3, is finished.
The announcement last week that the 2023 event had been cancelled wasn’t met with a huge amount of surprise in the industry – it’s enormously expensive to exhibit on the show floor, it’s a major commitment for development teams (already stretched by the pandemic) to provide playable demos, and the introduction of digital-only events such as Nintendo Direct and PlayStation State of Play has shown that it’s possible to reach global audiences without having to pay anywhere between $20,000 and $1.5m for a big booth amid the horrible expanse of downtown Los Angeles.
