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This is gonna be a long one...
For those who don't know, E3 was the "Electronic Entertainment Expo" and was a big hub for all sorts of electronic based entertainment starting way back in 1995. It started out covering all sorts of media, but quickly become a hub for mostly just video game stuff. Since the late 90s it was the premier location for developers to show off their new games.
Here's a an example of the show from 1997, where games such as: Half-Life, Castlevania Symphony of the Night, Metal Gear Solid, Quake 2, Resident Evil 2, Final Fantasy VII, and Banjo Kazooie were show shown off.
Back then, the best way to see this sort of show was usually to just read about it in magazines or online if you were so privileged. Additionally, some magazines came with demo discs that would feature some of the trailers and footage of the show floor shown off at the expo.
Eventually in 2002 the TV Channel known as "G4" started up and began live broadcasting E3 right on television. For many people, including myself, this became their main way of keeping up with event. With this and the advancements in online video streaming over the course of the 2000s, the event became bigger and bigger hosting everything from the debut of major releases to showcasing indie studios that could afford to get themselves a smaller booth. Below is a good chunk of one of these broadcasts, obviously I don't expect you to watch the whole thing but you can skip around to see what it was like.
By the early 2010s it felt like this grand event that if you were into video games, you just had to see. I remember me and my friends getting online on Skype or even Xbox 360 Party Chat and watching the live streams of the event, eager to see what new cool thing was shown off next. It felt like every gaming related YouTuber was making the pilgrimage of the event then too, and uploading their own experience as they went. It was a really big grand event that it felt like the entire community could rally behind.
As time went on and gaming shifted, the event became more divisive just as the entire gaming industry did itself. Of course there was a lot of behind the scenes hooha that also contributed to E3's rapid downfall starting around the mid 2010s. But I'm mostly here to remember the positives today.
The event was generally perceived to be managed poorly by the late 2010s and was rapidly declining in popularity. The people behind the event also made several poor management decisions that soured the event for people. This all may have been recoverable to a degree if it weren't for the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic pretty much sealed the fate of E3.
E3 2020 was cancelled but they constantly claimed it would return, but then they would cancel year after year for one reason or another. By this point many major companies pulled out of the event entirely, opting for digital events hosted themselves. An example of this would be Sony's "PlayStation: State of Play"
So finally, here in 2023, E3 has officially announced it is no more. I've had time to accept this in their absence the past 3 years, like a dying grandparent. We all knew it was coming. Still sad to see the event go, but it was inevitable with the state of things.
I remember when I was younger I used to dream about going to arcades, the movie rental store, E3, and a bunch of other things that aren't around anymore. At the time my family was poor, we couldn't afford to rent movies. We bought bootlegs. We couldn't afford arcades, and certainly not something like E3. But I was too young to do anything about it, once I got older all this stuff disappeared. My dreams of going to the arcade and wandering the halls of DVDs/snacks with my friends as a teenager, it was never going to happen. The world was different by the time I was old enough to do what I wanted to do, but I had E3 on my bucket list. It was one of my main life goals to go to the event that had looked so spectacular all my life.
But now, all that is over. Those stores don't exist, arcades don't exist near me and certainly not in the same vein, and E3 is done for. When you're young, hell maybe even when you're old, you never realize how much the world is gonna change. I'm still pissed everyday that they turned fast food places into Brutalist Coffee Shops. But ya know, that's life. Things change and there's not much you can do about it. Maybe something cool will come up in the years to come, don't know, can't see that far ahead.
So finally, here in 2023, E3 has officially announced it is no more. I've had time to accept this in their absence the past 3 years, like a dying grandparent. We all knew it was coming. Still sad to see the event go, but it was inevitable with the state of things.
I remember when I was younger I used to dream about going to arcades, the movie rental store, E3, and a bunch of other things that aren't around anymore. At the time my family was poor, we couldn't afford to rent movies. We bought bootlegs. We couldn't afford arcades, and certainly not something like E3. But I was too young to do anything about it, once I got older all this stuff disappeared. My dreams of going to the arcade and wandering the halls of DVDs/snacks with my friends as a teenager, it was never going to happen. The world was different by the time I was old enough to do what I wanted to do, but I had E3 on my bucket list. It was one of my main life goals to go to the event that had looked so spectacular all my life.
But now, all that is over. Those stores don't exist, arcades don't exist near me and certainly not in the same vein, and E3 is done for. When you're young, hell maybe even when you're old, you never realize how much the world is gonna change. I'm still pissed everyday that they turned fast food places into Brutalist Coffee Shops. But ya know, that's life. Things change and there's not much you can do about it. Maybe something cool will come up in the years to come, don't know, can't see that far ahead.
One day the world you inhabit will cease to exist.
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Gray
I've never been but I got sad reading as going to an E3 was on my bucket list too. I was given false hope the other day cause I was told "E3 is still a thing it only closed for covid" When I said I thought I heard it shut down for good.
Yeah I was holding out a little bit of hope. But it has been 3 years with no event, so I figured this was inevitable even if I didn't want it to be so.
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