E3 was a concentrated dose of gaming — and I’m going to miss it

14.12.2023 - 15:19 / theverge.com / Andrew Webster

By Andrew Webster, an entertainment editor covering streaming, virtual worlds, and every single Pokémon video game. Andrew joined The Verge in 2012, writing over 4,000 stories.

Back at E3 2017, I had a plan. The annual convention always had a wide range of game developers in attendance, offering reporters like me the opportunity to talk to prominent folks from all over the world. I decided it would be the ideal place to chat with Japanese creatives about the then-resurgent mood surrounding the country’s video game efforts. First on my list was Toshihiro Nagoshi, the infamously prickly creator of the Yakuza series. In an attempt to break the ice, I asked the stylish director where he bought his shoes. He replied, very simply — and in a very serious tone — “very expensive.” The only words of English he spoke during our entire conversation.

Now that E3 is dead — for real this time — I can’t help but think back on these kinds of memories. In a lot of ways, covering E3 as a member of the press was a nightmare; the lines were too long, as were the hours spent scouring the show floor, running from appointment to appointment (before going back and filing stories from a hotel room). It was big and loud and exhausting — seemingly not a great place to have interesting conversations that could become insightful articles. And yet, the sheer overwhelming energy of E3, with so many developers all crammed into one convention center for several days at a time, meant that it was also a chance to fully immerse myself in what I loved most: writing about video games.

There wasn’t and still isn’t anything quite like it — and for that reason, I’m really going to miss E3. Shows like Summer Game Fest have popped up to fill in E3’s role, and publishers continue to take matters into their own hands with regular livestreams. But these are online events first and foremost. They don’t have the mass of personalities in one location that E3 did. They’re better for disseminating news and trailers, but you miss out on getting negged by iconic game designers like Nagoshi.

E3 had existed since the ’90s, which means that, as a kid growing up reading EGM and Gamepro, it was a place I just had to go one day. In a pre-internet age, before games were announced via tweets and thousands of Mother 3 fans could be whipped into a frenzy by the words “Nintendo Direct,” it was a place where attendees could glimpse the future of gaming in a way that wasn’t otherwise possible. And those attendees were relatively limited. It was a show for press and people working in the industry, something that only further enhanced its near-mythical status.

I finally got my chance to attend in 2014 as a fledgling reporter here at The Verge. The Los Angeles