SEGA & Tencent Have Also Decided To Skip This Year's E3

ByE3

No I can’t think of anything more to say!

This is too funny, there's practically nobody left

I will truly miss E3. But it's dead now. Maybe it can be revived somehow but I seriously doubt it.

First the eshop and now E3? 😢

@FishyS everybody starts with e.

Ohoh….

So who IS going?

Edit: no one apparently.

E3 changed some years ago even before Nintendo direct showcases. If I remember correctly at one point anyone could be at the main big three conferences but then it was stopped and only press and gaming journalists were allowed, the reactions were not as great after that and it never was quite exciting not hearing the fans scream and cry.
One of the best moments being 2004, the Zelda reaction

Oke now I know that. There is nothing to say. It can happen.

Just cancel E3 2023 event.

Wow, at this point I am starting to wonder if it even makes sense to have it this year anymore.

The last few E3’s since 2019 have been moldy garbage so I’m not really losing any sleep if it’s done for good

Its bittersweet. But there comes a time when it's okay to say goodbye to something that's had it's time. If they are truly desperate in wanting to keep the concept of E3 alive, I think the energy and time spent trying to keep this thing alive (in it's current format) could be spent trying to find a way to make it work in today's culture.

@Mrsaturn: you are right. I will miss it too. When I was younger I the years between 1998 and 2002 this was always so awesome. It’s a shame these events die. Someone should come up with an online one. I can’t be bothered with every big publisher cooking their own soup. It used to be a family reunion feast. I’ll miss it.

E3 is dead, long live E3.

Inb4 E3 turns into a show for indie games.

@Arawn93 Maybe then it’d actually be interesting lol

RIP E3, next Capcom, Konami, Tecmo Koei, Bandai Namco, and Square Enix skipping and we could finally buried E3 for good.

I think this will finally end it. I do miss a decade ago when it was such a huge event… one of the highlights of my whole year!

I wanna be sad, but unless you were going IRL most companies have just been doing digital events anyways, and doing them year-round to boot so you have to wait less for news.

E3, I will miss ya, waiting for the event to start, the hype to see what Sony and Nintendo were cooking up, waiting for ssbu fighters o be shown off, thanks for the memories p. R.I.P

I've said this before, but it's worth repeating before this E3 gets cancelled ...

This format just isn't important in NA any more. In the old days, having 4000 media representatives in the same room, being able to give them all the same information at once had huge value. Your alternative was to have a network of marketing reps and go to each outlet individually. Even if you did that, you still needed to send the reps to the stores selling your product because it's not like "guy selling printers at retail" was reading the news for printer news ... but they WOULD follow E3 coverage.

That's the environment E3 was born in to. Today, you can hit a button and send a press release to every media outlet on earth, and another button to send a product training video to every retailer. E3 has little value.

Not ZERO value, which is why I said this format is worthless in North America and not everywhere. TGS and events like that will continue.

NA is big, the "English speaking world" is even bigger, and the cost of travel and accommodations in LA are insane when compared with the rest of the world. The idea of going to LA from Ontario, Canada or even New York is extremely cost prohibitive. Sending a rep from you office in the UK or the East coast to E3 is a $10,000+ proposition and involves spending time in the US ... a thing most people outside the US really, really don't want to do. It SUCKS for the rep too, as public transit is awful and traffic is worse. You're trapped in your hotel room, then trapped in the conference center until your trapped in your hotel room again.

It is cheaper (MUCH cheaper if you have experience and can get around US Airlines) to go to Tokyo from either of those locations. From anywhere else in SEA, going to Tokyo, it's dirt cheap. Accommodations are expensive in Tokyo, but public transit options means you could say in Soka or a dozen other places and get to the event in the same amount of time it's going to take you to get to the E3 from your Hotel 10 miles away (about an hour). You could also visit pretty much anywhere else in Japan as an evening trip.

E3 just has no value for anyone any more. It's not worth the trouble for the presenters, and it's not worth the trouble for the media. It's not even worth it for GAMERS, sitting at home, because you're going to get a lot more bang for your buck just watching the laser focused videos from developers and publishers you care about. The "big game show" can still be a thing, but location and media access have to be huge considerations.

Sheesh everyone's leaving E3. They might as well just cancel this year's E3 and move on...

E3 is a relic from the past, it's over the moment publisher realize they can host their own (online) show more cheaply than spending money on E3.

@FishyS Earthbound

RIP E3, I think. Hardly knew ya
1994(?)-2023

This E3 ain't even gonna be worth watching.

Directs now seem to be the norm. I'm ok with that but E3 did it's thing and was great in its prime.

E3 hasn't had a purpose in existing in years, it's better off just being left behind.

@BiscuitCrumbsInMyBed The shows were always exclusive to press.

@Liam Doolan "both Sega and Chinese video game giant Tencent will not be in attendance"

Just out of curiosity, why isn't it mentioned that SEGA is Japanese? Both companies are not American.

In the modern internet age events like E3 are quite pointless. They cost a lot of money and are terrible for the environment (everybody needs to commute to the confress center, power used, plastics and paper, etc)

Much cheaper to do it online. And u dont need to have playable demos.
I love e3 though and it makes me a bit sad to see it go 🥺

@Fulkaffe Honestly, we have never had so many downloadable demo's like we have now. You don't need a convention to release a demo of a game.

People (mainly non Nintendo fans) laughed and mocked Nintendo and said it was doomed now when it began doing directs over live E3 shows but looking back it was the blow that eventually killed E3.

I'll miss the excite of the big dates and the cringe of live performances but seems no need for E3 anymore and their move towards influencers was final nail in the coffin.

@FishyS what even Edward and elena?

Always saddens me to see in person events die. Guess that’s the world we live in, who needs to leave the house? Sigh

@Funneefox Yes, several days spent showcasing 4000 16-bit platformers and crafting games. It'd be rivetting.

@Drmarioland 1995. Easy way to remember is that it was the 1st E3 where Sega botched the Saturn launch and Sony fired the price heard round the world: "$299."

E3 has no point anymore, major companies can do a direct show for their fans. Social media has given us the “holy s**** look at the new Assassins Creed!” Instead of websites covering it.

I will say there was something “magical” about E3 from 95-06 and some “neat” from 07-15 and since then it seems to have lost all of its luster. It makes me miss the websites that I used to visit during those days.

@sportvater yeah it was like my Christmas Day in the early 2000s. Younger folk won't remember what it was like to be excited to get a VHS tape or DVD of the trailers after the fact. I remember watching the Smash Bros Melee opening video millions of times on what I think was an orange VHS tape?!

@sanderev huh, never seen a demo from a unreleased game anywhere. But sure 🫥

@Fulkaffe I've seen, and played, many of those. Just look at some failed Kickstarter projects. Most have / had short demo's. But also a lot of games have demo's released months before the game actual releases. Or even longer (see Square Enix Switch games)

E3 or not, I just hope we still have a Nintendo Direct during that time

@BiscuitCrumbsInMyBed This decision is basically what killed E3.

The last big E3 event was 2019. I always remember the amazing Cosplay, the cheering/screaming crowds with the big reveals, etc.

After that, when they turned into press only attendance, it just died and big companies started to pull out one by one. COVID on top did E3 not any favors either and so now it has just faded from memory and big Game publishers just hold their own events instead.

A lot of cost is involved attending those events as company. So they clearly no longer see the financial benefit to be present at E3 and I can't blame them. Especially since E3 made such a drastic change after 2019 and turned it basically in just a glorified over expensive press event, that gives no additional benefit to just organizing such events on your own.

Those last, press only E3's were just depressing to watch. A huge location with big boots and all you saw were just a handful of journalists walking around. Just boring and a huge waste.
Gone were the big enthusiastic crowds excited to play the latest demo's, showing off their cosplay, etc.

Gamers/Fans now just go to Game Con's, PAX events, etc and some publishers actually shifted their focus to these events as well with a presence.

@Tasuki
Because Nintendo Life wants to keep that partnership intact, so it is their responsibility to inform both the reader and the companies that this article is solely a news article and not an opinionated one.

I think the writing was on the wall when it was announced that the Big Three (Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft) would not be attending this year. Without the Big Three there showing off their latest releases, it disincentivizes third-party developers from showing up, either.

It's a shame, really. I loved E3, and would always take the time every year to watch the streams, especially Nintendo's. But even I have to admit that there's a good chance that there may never be another E3 again. Even if by some miracle it somehow happens this year, it might be the last.

@AstroTheGamosian Like I said in my previous post. The writing was on the wall, when the organization of E3 made the ridiculous decision to ban the public from attending E3 after 2019 and turn it into a press-only event. This was a huge and now irreversible mistake that doomed E3.

E3 was always like the Forza Horizon Festival for games. Big celebrations, big announcements… there was a time that I’d take off from work just to throw viewing parties. It’s disappointing to see if go away.

GamesCom is where the money deals are made and the crazy parties are held.

Goodbye E3. We will always tember the amazing reveals like twilight princess and FFVII remake. But also the fails like skyward sword demo and Wii music.

@Maulbert thanks

@Matroska better than 3 hours of apocalyptic tps with a nihilistic story for the ps5 and open world game set in Arizona with punk characters driving cars number 5 billion

@PosterBoy SEGA is an American company though, it was founded by an American entrepreneur but was later sold to a Japanese business man. This is why almost every contents and games Sega created were gear towards western audience like Europe and NA but the Japanese business man refuse to believe that and kept most of those contents as Japanese exclusive even though they cater to the western audience more.

Sega of America president Tom Kalinske knew this and use this to market the Sega Genesis in the USA which became very successful, he wanted to do the same with the Sega Saturn but Sega of Japan did not see the same perspective he see so they market the Saturn very differently in the west and kept a lot of the western cater games in Japan resulting in the Sega Saturn selling poorly in western territories.

Sega will and has always been an American company, a lot of its IPs sell better in the west, nobody in Japan wanted to see any Sega IP return such as Shenmue, Sonic the Hedgehog, Shinobi, Shining Force, Golden Axe, Panzer Dragoon, Streets of Rage, Phantasy Star, Yakuza, and Skies of Arcadia cause Japan doesn't like any of them, only western audience ask for those but to this day Sega still pretend that Japan wanted them and are willing to give all to the Japanese audience only to have those IP flops over there and then blame that the western audience doesn't want them cause the Japanese surely don't not knowing that both region's audience are different.

Not Tencent! I wanted to watch rotten food thrown at the stage when they darkened it.

@Jeronan You have to remember, though, these last few years were marked by the COVID-19 pandemic, which REALLY screwed things up when it came to large in-person gatherings. The pandemic really changed the way we do things now, especially E3.

They cancelled it for 2020 and 2022 citing concerns about the pandemic, and 2021 was a digital-only event, which likely prompted Microsoft and Sony to follow Nintendo's lead and transition to online-only press conferences (Nintendo started doing it in 2013, ten years ago).

It's possible that the Big Three will hold some sort of digital presser around the time that E3 will supposedly take place, but not as part of E3. But for all we know, this may be the last time E3 will ever be held, either in-person or digitally, unless it's cancelled.

Soooo many memories. I always loved watching E3 coverage and every year I couldn't wait for the trailers and reveals.

@sanderev ehm, not really the same as the ones on e3 😤

Pretty sure that major companies after experiencing how much money they can save by skipping out on E3 and just doing their own presentations, they are not gonna wanna go back to E3. In the end is all about the money, and nothing speaks louder to huge corporations than money, specially if they can earn more by spending less which is probably why they are skipping out on E3.

The Nintendo Revolution reveal back in 2005 was fantastic. I remember watching a livestream of the event back then, it definately stuck with me. I was disappointed first when Nintendo opted out and did their Direct-thing. But I guess you can say they were ahead of their time. And it‘s obviously far more conveniant for them, pre-recorded footage in front of a green screen - it can‘t get any more cost effective than that.

@Jeronan

E3 was open (on paper) to the public from 2016–2019 and for 2008 and 2009.

2008-2009 were awful E3s. They were not centralized, with events taking place all over the city. Some everts were open to the public, some where not.

For 2016, the E3 show wasn't really open to the public, there was was a sperate show at the L.A. Live venue for the public witch was universally seen as underwhelming. The event in the conference center was media only. The media HATED this format because they had to cover both locations and the public event was over sold.

For 2017 to 2019, the public could come to the convention center, but it was media only for 3 hours a day. These were likely the worst E3s hands down. Venders and presenters only did "face to face" and Q&A in that 3 hours, which meant that the media couldn't get to everything. If you were a smaller developer no one would come to your booth because there was no way to schedule your facetime such that it didn't conflict with something much bigger then you. For the remaining time it was media and the public all lining up for demos. Wait times where insane. Confusion around what you could and couldn't record were the norm.

Sony didn't go to 2019, specifically calling out the format change and focus on public attendance as the reason. That opened the floodgates. So if anything ... public attendance is what ended E3. Sure, the PUBLIC liked it more, but the venders spending 10 million on a mainstage were spending that for access to the media, and when that access became short term and cumbersome, the event has no value. I don't think anyone in the industry wouldn't call 2009-2015 large format media only events the "golden age" of E3.

Just means they get less money from me, no biggie.

@Fulkaffe I haven't been to E3 though. (I have never been in the States, nor do I plan to go there) So I only know what I've personally seen, and what I've seen is an improvement of demo's to play.

@KeeperBvK Something was changed back in 2006 or 2007 limiting fans if I remember correctly

@BiscuitCrumbsInMyBed Definitely not. I attended E3 2005 and the Nintendo press conference myself as a member of the media, and I have been following the E3 closely before and after. Definitely, back then, the exhibition itself and the publisher shows were not open to the public. If anything, it got more open in years after.
At the exhibition itself, you could also see e.g. Gamestop clerks or other people from the industry, but at the publishers' press conferences (as they were called), you would obviously only get in as a member of the press. And they would even limit the people per medium. We were three guys travelling to LA from Germany, but we could only get 2 tickets for the Nintendo show.

@BiscuitCrumbsInMyBed

Read my post a few posts above yours.

R3 had limited public access for only 4 years of it's 27 years (and a 5th year ran a completely separate fan event), and they were the 5 worst years of the show without question. It has never been fully open to the public.

Until 2005 you needed to get a press pass for the show, plus an invite for every individual conference. Only the showroom was open to all attendees. The big 3 press conferences have always been invite only. Microsoft let 100 people from the 2016 fan event into their conference that year, but that's the closest the public ever got to the mainstage.

@HeadPirate Well said, and I completely agree. Opening to the public marked the beginning of the end.

@KeeperBvK It may have been then that certain media attendees was limited and something was changed in 2006, I remember being on Nintendo sites and IGN at the time and people being really unhappy with the changes that were made. Pretty sure it was in 2006.