Alarm bells have sounded among the E3 tragics very recently, with Los Angeles’ Tourism Board reportedly claiming that the June event will be cancelled for 2024 and 2025, following its late-game canning this year.
According to a meeting packet picked up by users on ResetEra, the board had noted the cancellation of the event for the next two years in a presentation slide focused on sales generated by local conventions. You can see it in the below image [original post]:
For its part, the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) later issued a statement to VGC in response, saying that a cancellation of the event hasn’t been set in stone and conversations are ongoing, which could mean that the Tourism Board jumped the gun in its reporting or even that E3 could go ahead elsewhere or in a digital-only form once again.
“ESA is currently having conversations about E3 2024 (and beyond), and no final decisions about the event have been made at this time,” it told the outlet.
The event was cancelled this year after multiple publisher and vendors declined to take part or pulled out, with organiser ReedPop saying:
“This was a difficult decision because of all the effort we and our partners put toward making this event happen, but we had to do what’s right for the industry and what’s right for E3. We appreciate and understand that interested companies wouldn’t have playable demos ready and that resourcing challenges made being at E3 this summer an obstacle they couldn’t overcome. For those who did commit to E3 2023, we’re sorry we can’t put on the showcase you deserve and that you’ve come to expect from ReedPop’s event experiences.”
