It’s been five years since the last official E3, and Xbox now has the honor of having held what many are calling an “E3-caliber showcase” this past weekend. It was a nonstop stream of game trailers and big announcements that actually felt like it could rival Nintendo’s peerless Directs, and quite possibly put PlayStation in the awkward position of contending with why its own State of Plays haven’t really taken off in the same way.
The head-to-head among gaming’s biggest companies is just one of the feelings that disappeared with the cancellation of E3 all those years ago, but it’s one that’s starting to return, thankfully.
In its heyday, E3 was the gaming event, not just of the summer but of the year. It was a week where all the biggest game companies would show off new trailers, share big announcements, and invite press to preview upcoming games so they could then share their impressions with readers.
Cut to 2024 and E3 is no more. But this past weekend there emerged a semi-centralized orbit of events comprising Summer Game Fest, the Xbox Games Showcase, Ubisoft Forward, and IGN Live. It was preceded by a PlayStation Showcase, and at some point later this month there will be a Nintendo Direct. But for the most part it was a weekend where some of the largest game companies showed off new trailers, shared big announcements, and invited press to preview upcoming games, of which we’re writing up our impressions now to share with you all.
E3 is dead, for sure, but it feels like the industry is finally settling on its successor.
Of course, Summer Game Fest and other such events have been around for a while now, but the past several years have also been about folks still figuring things out. E3 was officially canceled for good in 2023 but the last actual E3 event was back in June of 2019. When E3 2020 was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the alternative summer lineup that emerged in its place was a big old mess.
Between May and August — a four-month period rather than the blitz of announcements we previously saw over the course of a couple of weeks — companies like Microsoft, EA, PlayStation, and Ubisoft all held various digital showcases. Turns out, four months of shotgun-blast style reveals announced seemingly at random with different levels of quality made many like myself feel ragged rather than hyped. It was frankly exhausting, unfocused, and I never want to have to make spreadsheets again to keep track of which livestream was happening when.
Looking back, I wonder if it was even worth it at all to try to replicate the feeling of E3 during this time. There was, frankly, a global pandemic ripping through the world that made focusing on games a little difficult. Furthermore, COVID-19 had a very real impact on the games industry at the time, delaying many of those games to years away which in turn did make those showcases lackluster as a result.
There was a real ‘lost in the wilderness’ sense around what to do in the summer these past couple of years that thankfully I didn’t feel in 2024. The focused two-week window, hands-on demo opportunities, and shows put on by publishers best-suited to host them have returned a familiar energy to the summer gaming window.
That isn’t to say it’s exactly the same as it was. It seems like a new format has officially taken hold. It took some fine-tuning, but it appears the Nintendo Direct style has won out, with developers understanding that ultimately trailers and announcements are king. Xbox has seemingly understood the assignment best and for the past few shows now have iterated on the Nintendo playbook with its Xbox Games Showcase.
The one from this weekend would fit right at home if it aired from the venue formerly known as the Microsoft Theater, and just like in past E3s, media were invited immediately after to get some hands-on time with some of the announced games (in this case, Age of Mythology: Retold).
There is also the matter of how shows like this can contend with hardship. It’s not been forgotten that this is a year of historic layoffs and studio closures, and as far as I can tell we got one reference to them this entire weekend. It might be a small consolation, but getting to gather at these events to commiserate over the hits the business has taken in recent years is also a returning element of lost game shows.
It’s not been so long that the memory of E3 is just some nostalgia-tinged, half-remembered, game trailer-fueled dream. Because of the nature of game development taking so long, it was an important waypoint for both gamers and journalists to check in on the state of the industry. What trends were dominating the year, which publisher was building an exciting pipeline of games? Which publisher had the best vision for its future?
It was hard to focus on these things amid a global pandemic, and the attempts to recapture this feeling through weeks of digital shows that felt never-ending, but also never fully-realized certainly didn’t help. Luckily, it looks like that’s no longer the case.
E3 was an ideal. It was a dream destination for many gamers, an important week of work for developers, and the biggest calendar event of the year for media outlets. And it offered something for everybody. If you were someone obsessed with trailers, there was plenty of that. If you’re a fan of the bloodsport, each E3 was followed by endless weeks of debate over who “won.”
Looking around now I’m seeing much of these familiar beats return, and there appears to be an understanding in the industry that while E3 may never come back, it’s possible to come together for at least one week in June to put on a show that’s great for fans eagerly looking forward to what’s next for their favorite pastime.
Matt T.M. Kim is IGN’s Senior Features Editor. You can reach him @lawoftd.
