Shulou(Shulou.com)12/24 Report--

"The people who really want to leave just pick a sunny afternoon, wrap themselves in the most commonly worn coat, go out and never come back. "

Late at night on December 12, ESA suddenly tweeted that E3 would be permanently suspended,"We know it's hard to say goodbye to such a much-loved event, but considering that the gaming industry has had more new opportunities to reach players and partners, I think this decision is correct." In an interview with the media, ESA Chairman Stanley Pierre-Louis expressed his farewell to the end of E3.

The game, which was born in 1995, has finally come to an end. The full name of E3 is Electronic Entertainment Expo. E3 exhibition can be said to be an advance preview of the annual business war of the game industry. Major game manufacturers will display the most important products of this year at this exhibition. Whether they can succeed at this exhibition represents the market prospect of this product to some extent. Therefore, E3 is also known as "the annual Olympic event of electronic entertainment industry," and the contestants are major game manufacturers.

Before E3, game makers could only travel to other trade shows, such as CES and ECTS, to showcase upcoming games, estimate shipments to retailers for the rest of the year, and check news reports about upcoming games.

Video games were unpopular at traditional trade shows at the time, and "CES organizers used to put the gaming industry at the back of the table," recalls Tom Kalinsk, then CEO of Sega America. In 1991, they put us in a tent and you had to walk past all the porn booths to find us. It rained cats and dogs that year, and the rain leaked right onto our new MegaDrive. "

With the rapid development of the game industry in the early 1990s, industry professionals believed that ordinary trade shows were no longer suitable for games. During this period, game manufacturers also looked for CES and other exhibitions to discuss whether they could improve the treatment of video games at the exhibition, but they all ended in failure.

There is demand, there is a market, E3 exhibition is also born under this opportunity, the first E3 exhibition was held in Los Angeles Convention Center from May 11 to 13, 1995, because it was the first time to hold, the organizers did not have too much expectation for the number of participants, did not expect E3 to start king explosion. The first edition of E3 attracted over 40000 participants, making it the number one event in gaming.

It is worth mentioning that the first E3 exhibition in 1995 left a very popular "299" scene. At that time, Sega, one of the organizers, spared no effort to promote its "Saturn" host at the exhibition. After a compliment, it announced the price of $399. When it was Sony's turn, spokesman Steve Race said only one word,"299," and then turned to leave the stage to cheering fans.

With the rapid development of video games in the millennium, the scale of E3 exhibition is also expanding year by year, but some problems behind the rapid expansion have also been revealed_the cost of game manufacturers participating in the exhibition is too high.

At that time, an E3 booth cost between $5 million and $10 million, and the high investment was not proportional to the return. Manufacturers found that a large part of the people participating in E3 were "online celebrities" and players. For manufacturers, they wanted to contact professional game industry personnel, retailers and journalists to expand the influence of their games. As more and more manufacturers protested, E3 had to formulate a new exhibition policy in 2007, E3 began to reduce the exhibition size and began to restrict the number of ordinary players to 10000, and postponed the holding time by two months.

However, this adjustment seems to be overcorrected. Although the sharp drop in the number of exhibitors allows manufacturers to reach more employees, it also reduces the exposure of E3 in front of players. In 2008 Activision announced it was pulling out of E3, citing "we're too big for E3." "The implication is that there is a bit of contempt for the current E3.

In 2009, E3 again came to wave the operation, the number of exhibitors expanded to 45000, but still did not allow ordinary players to participate, this is really to offend both manufacturers and players. At this time, many game manufacturers have begun to choose not to participate in E3 exhibition, instead holding their own game release conference.

In 2013, Nintendo and EA announced that they would not participate in E3, Microsoft and Sony also began not to announce hardware at E3, only to show some new games, although there were highlights of Cyberpunk 2077 and Elder Scrolls 6, but it is undeniable that E3 has become less and less important in the minds of manufacturers.

Finally, in 2019, Sony, which participated in every session, also announced its withdrawal from E3, and all three of the royal families left the E3 popularity to its lowest point. According to statistics, E3 lost nearly one-third of its exhibitors between 2017 and 2019, from 293 to 209.

Unexpectedly, this farewell actually lasted for 3 years of epidemic situation to E3 on the final final skill, 2020 E3 exhibition announced the suspension for the first time, each manufacturer has transferred publicity activities to the online, as a result these manufacturers found that the effect is quite good. According to market research firm SuperData, even if E3 is cancelled, the big players in the gaming world can still absorb considerable traffic and even surpass the number of viewers at E3 2019.

Compared with the manufacturer's own online exhibition, E3 seems a little miserable, suspended in 2020, held an online exhibition in 2021, the result is a terrible mess. It will still be suspended in 2022, and the promised result in 2023 will be cancelled due to the poor effect of the previous sessions. Even Ubisoft, Sega and Tencent are unwilling to participate. In September 2023, E3 announced that there would be no E3 2024, but there would be E3 2025. As a result, everyone should know that it is over!

There are many reasons for the closure of E3, including the ambiguity of E3's own positioning and the lack of immediate changes, as well as the rapid development of external network exhibitions and the impact of the epidemic on offline activities, but in any case, the "Summer Game Celebration," which was watched by countless people staying up late, has been officially declared dead.

For the cancellation of E3, many manufacturers and developers also began to recall their own bits and pieces with E3, and the song sounded, and life recalled.

As the first time to participate in two consecutive E3 exhibitions,"Cyberpunk 2077" came to remember, 19 years E3 Keanu Reeves debut is also regarded as the last highlight of E3 exhibition, one by slowly updating won the continuous operation award, the other lost their own operation, it is amazing.

So long, thanks for the memories. E3 has been an exciting event for many years and we are excited to show our games to E3 and meet so many wonderful fans. Thanks to E3 for making us part of the magic. Bioware, as one of the earliest manufacturers to participate in E3, is believed to be full of emotions.

Ubisoft and B also express their gratitude to E3 for bringing so many wonderful memories to players. Goodbye, old friends.

Santa Monica Studios creative director Corybarlog recalled the highlight moment when God of War was announced at E3,"Years ago, we showed a live demo of God of War and saw how excited players were about this new strange game starring angry guys in chains. I love and hate it. RIPsto the E3. "

Well-known game producer Hideo Kojima also recalled his own story with E3, and the closure of E3 was a sad news. We first exhibited MGS in Atlanta in 1997, and I've attended every year since. I especially cherish the moment when MGS2 was released in 2000, that was 23 years ago, and I will never forget the cheers and encouragement I received at the scene. Without E3, Japanese creators and works would not have gone global as they do now. E3 crosses borders and races, and attending parties and conferences at E3 makes it easy to connect with creators from all countries. For E3, I just have to thank, thank you, E3.

Remedy Communications Director Thomas Puha shared a photo of himself with Hideo Kojima, Kenichiro Imaizumi and others. Seeing this photo clearly realized how long 28 years was.

Former GameSpot host dannyo'dwyer lamented the end of E3. He also said that he had participated in the production of E3 documentary in 2019. Unexpectedly, he saw the news of E3 suspension now. Rest in peace, my king.

Frontier Developments director Hollie Bennett said it was a shame to see E3 finally close, saying she felt that no show in the past could compare to E3, and Bennett was happy that she had left many memories at E3.

Former Twitch PR Director ChasejustChase said that he has participated in E3 since 1999 and only missed it once. Although he knows that E3 has not been good in recent years, he still feels very sorry to hear the news of suspension. He is very happy that he has participated.

Former Xbox podcast host "Major Nelson" wrote that 2023 will be the year of most changes in the industry.

There are also a large number of players in the comment area who begin to recall their stories with E3. Some players also say that going to E3 once has always been his dream, but they always feel that they can go again next year. Now they regret seeing E3 stop.

Goodbye, old friend. It's my pleasure.

As former IGN editors Greg Miller and Zeta Gaming put it: "Don't be sad it's over, smile because it happened." "

GGWP, goodbye, E3.

This article comes from Weixin Official Accounts: UCG media (ID: UCG_Media), author: NE

Welcome to subscribe "Shulou Technology Information " to get latest news, interesting things and hot topics in the IT industry, and controls the hottest and latest Internet news, technology news and IT industry trends.