By Nelson Schneider - 04/03/22 at 01:43 PM CT
Due to the lingering effects of the still-ongoing (thanks, anti-vax retards) COVID-19 pandemic, E3, the Electronic Entertainment Expo, which has long been the Entertainment Software Association’s biggest and most publicly-visible trade show, has been cancelled again in 2022. Back in early 2020, when the outbreak was just getting started and nobody knew how COVID was spread, let alone had access to testing, vaccines, and therapeutics, the ESA rightfully cancelled a large semi-public trade show, where swarms of gaming bodies would mash-together, swapping sweat and various flavors of BO. In 2021, with the pandemic still raging and vaccination rates still low due to logistical issues (and the afore-mentioned anti-vax retards – guess what, vaccines don’t cause retardation, since the people who refuse to get them already have it), the ESA transitioned E3 to an all-digital format, which, I personally, found to be the best E3 in many years (Sony quitting also helped filter out a lot of the garbage).
Alas, the ESA apparently couldn’t make up its mind whether or not to have an in-person trade show in 2022, and dragged their feet long enough that they just decided to cancel the whole thing, again. In an official statement, the ESA is promising a “revitalized” E3 for 2023, which may or may not pan out, since COVID continually mutates into new variants, causing Red China – the source of the plague – to issue full lockdowns again.
It’s really a shame to have another year without any form of E3. While the ESA’s trade show has been on the ropes for quite a while, with empty-headed armchair pundits dismissing it as ‘irrelevant’ and major players in the Games Industry – specifically Nintendo and Sony – either doing all-digital presentations as a matter of course or bowing out altogether, E3 is still an annual celebration of all things gaming that has played something of a sacred role in the development of Gamer Culture.
Every Summer, we look forward to learning about the most exciting titles the biggest Games Industry players have in the works. We also get to see bold, small-time Indie projects and subversive absurdity, like Devolver Digital’s ongoing satirization of Industry tropes. E3 is, indeed, the closest thing we have to a “public” celebration of gaming, since the other trade shows that are sprinkled haphazardly about the calendar typically feel much more private, elite, and unapologetically biased. No, with E3, we’ve been able to compare all of the big players, side-by-side, on a level playing field, and allow our own biases to decide which ones look the most foolish.
Even when E3 is ‘bad,’ it’s ultimately good, since it forces Industry players to put their best foot forward, compete with each other in the public square, and allows the audience to provide feedback on projects early enough in their lifecycle that it’s not too late to change things. It couldn’t be any less irrelevant.
