What just happened? The Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) has been in turmoil ever since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. With the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) now telling its partners that this year's event has been canceled, the future of the expo appears bleak.
The first report of E3 2022's cancellation came in a tweet from Razer PR lead Will Powers, who said he received an email confirming it. Soon after, the ESA notified Axios's Stephen Totilo and Variety that it axed this year's show. The organization plans to use the extra time to organize an in-person and digital E3 in the summer of 2023.
In January, the ESA canceled this year's in-person event due to the emergence of the Omicron variant of Covid-19. Reports also suggested that a digital-only event hadn't been set in stone. Typically, E3 announces the date of next year's event immediately upon the close of the current year's expo. However, the ESA never revealed a date for E3 2022. The event hasn't been held in person since 2019. The onset of the pandemic led to the first-ever cancellation of E3 in 2020, and E3 2021 was an online-only event.
The official Twitter account of the 2022 Super Game Fest --- a similar industry event --- tweeted a link to its website immediately after Powers's tweet. The show's host, Geoff Keighley, reacted with a winking emoji. The website for this year's Summer Game Fest went live in January, at nearly the same time the ESA canceled E3 2022's in-person event.