UGO Entertainment, Inc. was a website that provided coverage of online media in entertainment, targeting males aged 18–34. The company was based in New York, New York , United States.
78-558: The company started in 1997 as Unified Gamers Online , billed in directories as a "hand-picked network of professionally managed gaming sites and services." In 1997, founder Chris Sherman hired Ken Margolis Associates to manage sales and marketing to the Game Industry. Chris sold UGO to Actionworld, Inc., a subsidiary of InterWorld, which incorporated the company in the state of Delaware in April, 1997. That same year, InterWorld spun off
156-531: A February 2019 interview that with changes in retailer procurement, their own switch to fewer but more quality titles, and the rapid spread of news via the Internet that having a trade show as late as June is no longer helpful, and that Sony had to create its own Destination PlayStation experience in February as to secure retailer sales. Industry Analyst Michael Patcher, speaking to GamingBolt, said, "I think it's
234-529: A change, E3 would become extinct. Pachter also found that retailers were less interested in E3 due to the later calendar date. Activision , which had been a member of the ESA since its start, opted to leave the ESA in 2008 and to no longer participate in the E3 event, with their CEO Robert Kotick stating the company was too big for the E3 and ESA at that point, riding on revenue from World of Warcraft . Responding to
312-525: A dedicated space at the next CES, which would have conflicted with the planned E3 event, requiring the companies to pick one or the other. Most of the IDSA members supported E3, while Nintendo and Microsoft were still supportive of the CES approach. After about three to four months, Ferrell was told by CEA's CEO Gary J. Shapiro that he had "won" and that they had canceled the CES video game event, effectively making E3
390-580: A dedicated trade show for video games, building off IDG's established experience in running the Macworld convention . Ferrell contacted the IDSA who saw the appeal of using their position in the industry to create a video game-specific tradeshow, and offered to co-found the Electronic Entertainment Expo with IDG. Though several companies agreed to present at this E3 event, Ferrell discovered that CEA had offered video game companies
468-544: A fully online format for 2020: While many traditional physical sports games, seasons, and playoffs were cancelled due to the pandemic , the organizing leagues turned to video game equivalents as alternative entertainment, using the professional athletes from their leagues within the games. Some examples of this included: Television networks which normally would have shown the sporting events that were cancelled have turned to both these replacement sports programs as well as other esport tournaments as replacement programming during
546-421: A large keynote presentation and instead have used pre-recorded Nintendo Direct and live video events during the E3 week since 2013 to showcase their new products, though they still run floor booths for hands-on demonstrations. Since 2014, there also have been Nintendo Treehouse Live streams that focused on several different games as well as tournaments for different titles. Electronic Arts, since 2016, have set up
624-401: A mistake to skip the show, they will probably be there without a big booth. It was a surprise to me". As of 2016, revenues from running E3 accounted for about 48% of the organization's annual budget, with another 37% coming from membership dues. With Sony's withdrawal from the conference and the controversies surrounding outgoing ESA president Mike Gallagher, some member companies criticized
702-476: A separate EA Play event in a nearby locale to announce and exhibit their titles, citing the move as a result of the lack of public access to the main E3 show. Other vendors, like Microsoft and Sony have used pre-E3 events to showcase hardware reveals, leaving the E3 event to cover new games for these systems. By 2015, traditional video game marketing had been augmented by the use of publicity through word-of-mouth by average gamers, persons not normally part of
780-520: A separate but free "E3 Live" event at the nearby L.A. Live space that was to help provide a small-scale version of the E3 experience. While it drew about 20,000 people, it was found to be underwhelming. In 2017, the ESA reserved 15,000 tickets to the convention for members of the public to buy; these were all sold, leading to more than 68,000 attendees during E3 2017 , which led to noticeable crowding and floor management issues. ESA confirmed that E3 2018 would include public passes, but that for two of
858-472: A separate location would be held as "Fan Days" for all members of the public. In January 2023, IGN reported that neither Microsoft, Nintendo, or Sony would exhibit at E3 2023, with Nintendo confirming their absence the following month, citing that "this year's E3 show didn't fit into our plans." Microsoft confirmed in March 2023 they would not be on the E3 showfloor, but would be holding the digital events. In
SECTION 10
#1732776610586936-448: A separate venue in collaboration with ReedPop . The pandemic further accelerated the use of standalone presentations by individual publishers and media outlets to promote upcoming games directly to consumers, development timelines usually aligned around the convention had been disrupted, and publishers were increasingly concerned over the costs of exhibiting at the convention. E3 2023 was cancelled after all major publishers pulled out of
1014-488: A statement announcing that he would also be forgoing his attendance of E3 for the first time in the expo's 25-year history, citing his discomfort with the direction planned for the event in 2020. However, in the months leading to the 2020 event, the COVID-19 pandemic created concerns related to large gatherings such as E3. As late as March 4, 2020, the ESA had still intended to hold E3 2020, though said they were monitoring
1092-423: A voluntary standard rating system that was approved by Congress. The industry recognized that it needed some type of trade show for retailers. According to Eliot Minsker, chairman and CEO of Knowledge Industry Publications (which produced and promoted the show with Infotainment World), "Retailers have pointed to the need for an interpretive event that will help them make smarter buying decisions by interacting with
1170-534: A wide range of publishers, vendors, industry influentials, and opinion leaders in a focused show setting." Attempts were made between the video game companies and the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) which ran CES, to improve how video games were treated at CES, but these negotiations failed to produce a result. Pat Ferrell, creator of GamePro which was owned by International Data Group (IDG), conceived of an idea for starting
1248-518: The COMDEX trade show to shut down. Several large vendors told the ESA that they were going to pull out of the next E3, which would have had a domino effect on other vendors. To avoid this, the ESA announced in July 2006 that E3 would be downsized and restructured due to the overwhelming demand from the exhibitors, and would limit attendees to those from the media and retail sectors. For 2007 and 2008, E3
1326-461: The Sega Saturn , priced at $ 399. Sony also introduced the first PlayStation console , with Sony Computer Entertainment North America's president Steve Race came on stage during their press event to simply say "$ 299" before leaving the stage to applause. The surprise undercutting price had a significant impact on Sega and the current console war between Sega, Sony, and Nintendo. From then on, E3
1404-451: The "professional" development community. The ESA began to seek ways to allow these people to attend E3 in limited numbers without overwhelming the normal attendees. For E3 2015 , 5,000 tickets were distributed to vendors to be given to fans to be able to attend the event. That same year also marked the introduction of the "PC Gaming Show", featuring games for personal computers across a range of developers and publishers. E3 2016 featured
1482-463: The 2023 show was a result of three factors: that the COVID-19 pandemic had impacted the typical development cycle for most companies; that the current economy had publishers and developers re-evaluate the need for attending E3; and that, as a result, there has been more exploration of the mix of in-person and digital marketing events that individual companies have run. While Pierre-Louis stated that ESA
1560-512: The ESA announced that the in-person version of E3 2022 had been cancelled due to COVID-19, with no immediate confirmation of a virtual event. Although this announcement came amid spread of the Omicron variant , IGN reported that unlike past years, E3 2022 had no dates publicized by either the ESA or the LACC—which had cast doubt (especially amid the internal issues surrounding the 2020 event, and
1638-658: The ESA confirmed that E3 2023 would occur at the Los Angeles Convention Center during the second week of June 2023, and that they have partnered with ReedPop , who operate conventions such as PAX events , New York Comic Con , and the Star Wars Celebration , to help manage the event. In September 2022, the ESA announced that the event would also include three "Business Days" where the floor would be limited to developers, publishers, retailers, and recognized journalists, while two days at
SECTION 20
#17327766105861716-405: The ESA for splitting its focus between producing E3 and acting as a legislative advocacy group, with neither focus receiving adequate attention. This led to calls advocating for the business of running E3 to be split out into a separate company. Developers and publishers complained of the increasing cost to have a booth presence at E3 compared to simply holding a digital event streamed online, saying
1794-484: The ESA once notified. A number of journalists on the lists reported that they were subsequently harassed and had received death threats due to their private information being released as part of the leak. Ahead of E3 2020, the ESA stated they were taking stricter security measures to protect the privacy of those registering for E3 as a result of the leak. ESA president Stanley Pierre-Louis stated they plan to collect less data from attendees and take measures such as securing
1872-553: The ESA stated it still planned to hold the 2021 event, announcing its normal June dates to partners in April 2020. While the ESA had planned for a combined in-person and virtual event, the organization notified its partners in February 2021 that it was dropping the in-person event but maintaining the virtual event plans. According to Video Games Chronicle , the ESA still planned to use the LACC to broadcast some of these virtual events during E3 2021 , as well as planning on further use of
1950-484: The Los Angeles Convention Center in 1999, and continued to grow in attendance, ranging from 60,000 to 70,000 attendees. In addition to the event, E3 started to support (or became associated with) several websites. One was E365, introduced in 2006, an online community which attendees used to network and schedule meetings. Following the 2006 convention, the IDSA—now ESA—found that many exhibitors were worried about
2028-401: The Los Angeles Convention Center, but also capped attendance at about 5,000. ESA was harshly criticized for these smaller events. Industry analyst Michael Pachter said that because consumers had been eliminated from attending the events, there was little external media coverage of these E3s, reducing the visibility and commercialization opportunities for publishers, and suggested that without
2106-708: The United States in the first six months of 2020 reached US$ 6.6 billion , the highest since 2010. Some specific examples of game software and hardware sales affected by the pandemic include: Game publishers and developers have expressed concerns that further extensions of the movement control orders from the pandemic may incur additional delays. One major factor that may cause delays is the ability to capture voice acting without access to studios during physical distancing for society , even though some of members have considered working from residence remotely to avoid troubling situations. An example of this happened with
2184-663: The Western release of Persona 5 Strikers whose voice acting in English was meant to start in April 2020 but was delayed due to the pandemic. The actors later received audio equipment from Atlus so that they could work at home. As much of the world's population have been quarantined due to the pandemic, video game playing and other Internet use has increased significantly. Steam had over 23 million concurrent players during March 2020, surpassing all previous records while over three billion hours of content were watched on Twitch over
2262-433: The aforementioned reception to E3 2021) over whether the event was even being planned at all. Furthermore, IGN reported via anonymous sources that the ESA had made a decision to cancel the event as early as late-2021. The ESA formally announced on March 31, 2022, that they had fully cancelled E3 2022. In June 2022, the ESA stated that they still planned to return with a physical and virtual show in 2023. One month later,
2340-399: The aftermath of its first year, E3 was already regarded as the biggest event in the video game industry. The IDSA realized the strength of a debut trade show, and subsequently renegotiated with IDG to allow the IDSA to take full ownership of the show and the intellectual property associated with the name, while hiring IDG to help with execution of the event. During this E3, Sega had introduced
2418-463: The center has had to make the space more appropriate for their needs. Gallagher said that the ESA was working with the City and Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG) which owns the Los Angeles Convention Center and the space around it, with plans to have nearly 500,000 sq ft (46,000 m ) of additional exhibition space added by 2020, but that they would judge this in the 2018 show. During 2018,
UGO Networks - Misplaced Pages Continue
2496-836: The company "in order to permit UGO Networks to build a separate management team...and to position UGO Networks to seek private parts equity financing." In 1998, UGO—then described as "the largest independent gaming community on the Internet"—created the prestigious UGO E3 Awards, now the Game Critics Awards , to recognize high quality video game entertainment. In 1999, UGO changed its name to UnderGround Online as part of its efforts to expand its target audience. The company streamed various forms of media entertainment on its website as well as offering articles on topics of interest to its target audience. Topics included comics, television, music and film. Its main competitors included CNET Networks , IGN , and Yahoo! . On July 24, 2007 it
2574-477: The company withdrew its support in favor of its PlayStation Expo. Sega then pulled out at the last minute, leaving Nintendo the only big-three company to appear. Held November 1–4, 1996, the presence of several other gaming expos and lack of support from Japanese game manufacturers led to reportedly poor turnout and rumored E3 events in Singapore and Canada did not take place. Due to failed negotiations for
2652-541: The complaints from the previous two years, the ESA announced that E3 2009 would be more open, but capping attendance at about 45,000 and closed to the public, as to achieve a balance between the two extremes. All subsequent E3s took place in June of the calendar year at the Los Angeles Convention Center. Starting in 2013, some of the major video game companies, particularly Nintendo and Electronic Arts , have opted not to showcase at E3. In Nintendo's case, they have foregone
2730-465: The content. Two tracks from Just Dance Unlimited were made free to make up for the delay. The Japanese game ratings body Computer Entertainment Rating Organization was forced to close operations from early April through 7 May, and upon reopening, implemented appropriate controls that reduced work hours, which is expected to delay some releases in Japan as they await a rating for retail release. With
2808-708: The convention space in Los Angeles, the E3 conventions in 1997 and 1998 were held at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, Georgia. Turnout at these shows was dramatically lower than at the first two E3s, which has been attributed to a declining number of game developers and the fact that many video game companies were based on the West Coast, making the cost of sending staff and equipment to Atlanta prohibitive. The show returned to
2886-400: The data on separate servers to avoid this type of leak from occurring again. During the last day of the event in 2019, it was confirmed that E3 would be held at the LACC for at least another year, with the 2020 edition. The ESA affirmed they had renegotiated use of the LACC through 2023, but retained the rights to break that contract if desired. The ESA's membership approved an increase in
2964-604: The days, the event would be open only to industry attendees for three hours prior to admitting the public. The ESA unveiled the new logo for E3, replacing its previous one using three-dimensional block letters with a flatter, stylized graphic, in October 2017. While the ESA has the Convention Center space reserved through 2019, ESA's CEO Mike Gallagher said, following the 2017 event, that they were considering other options due to lack of modernization and upgrades that
3042-410: The disruption caused by the pandemic made it impossible to host an online equivalent, fully cancelling the event, though the ESA would help its partners to present individual announcements via E3's website. Keighley would organize Summer Game Fest —an event series encompassing various publisher-led digital presentations and demo offerings from May to August 2020. Despite cancelling the 2020 event,
3120-458: The event drew 69,200 attendees, the largest since 2005. With announcements of the dates for E3 2019 , the ESA declined to state where they had planned to hold the 2020 event. Sony Interactive Entertainment had announced that it would not be participating in E3 2019, having had participated in every E3 since its launch. Sony stated that they "are exploring new and familiar ways to engage our community in 2019". Sony's CEO Shawn Layden stated in
3198-620: The event, and E3 2024 was cancelled in September 2023 in order to evaluate plans for 2025. On December 12, 2023, the ESA announced that E3 had been retired and would no longer be held. Before E3, game publishers went to other trade shows like the Consumer Electronics Show and the European Computer Trade Show to display new or upcoming products as well as to pre-sell shipments to retailers for
UGO Networks - Misplaced Pages Continue
3276-429: The exposure afforded by E3 was not always worth the price. Sony and Electronic Arts' departure and Nintendo's move to a digital-only keynote diminished E3's status as the premier game announcement event, which further eroded its ability to attract exhibitors. E3 lost nearly 1/3 of its exhibitors between 2017 and 2019, going from 293 to 209. On August 3, 2019, it was found that an unsecured list of personal attendee data
3354-601: The first quarter of 2020, a 20% increase from the previous year's. Microsoft reported a substantial increase in users of its Xbox Game Pass service in the months of March and April 2020, bringing it to over 10 million subscribers. GeForce Now capacity was temporarily exhausted in Europe before additional server capacity was added. The additional bandwidth from video games and other Internet services created concerns that critical bandwidth would not be available for medical and other key infrastructure elements necessary to mitigate
3432-432: The former reportedly planned to have a "complete reinvention". On December 12, 2023, the ESA announced that E3 had been discontinued, citing "the new opportunities our industry has to reach fans and partners". Pierre-Louis said that events like Summer Game Fest were not responsible for the decision to end E3, while the increasing number of publisher-specific showcases was a reason. He further stated that ReedPop's departure
3510-675: The game could access a month of the Just Dance Unlimited service. Ubisoft also announced in its official forum that the second event entitled "Power Gala", which was part of the second season "Feel the Power" in Just Dance 2020, had been postponed. The developer explained that the company wanted to protect its team due to the pandemic, and that "although [their] team still work[ed] hard to make our servers work as smoothly as possible at home", this needed to be resolved by postponing
3588-457: The high costs of presenting at the event, spending between $ 5–$ 10 million for their booths. They had also found that a larger proportion of attendees were bloggers and attendees who were not perceived to be industry professionals by vendors, managing to secure access to the conference. These additional attendees diluted the vendors' ability to reach out to their target audience, retailers and journalists. Both of these reasons had previously caused
3666-439: The need to stay inside one's home to avoid infection, many gamers flocked to online games as a substitute for social interactions they would otherwise miss. Animal Crossing: New Horizons was especially popular, with people around the world turning to the game's recreation of ordinary daily life activities and social networking features as a substitute for the normalcy disrupted by the pandemic. Another very popular game during
3744-432: The number of public passes from 15,000 to 25,000 for the 2020 show. Alongside this, the ESA had presented proposed, but not finalized, plans to make the 2020 event a "fan, media, and influencer festival". To mitigate the longer lines caused by increased public attendance, they aimed to use "queuetainment" to advertise to attendees while they wait, as well as a FastPass -like system of reserving game demos in advance similar to
3822-506: The number of units of the Nintendo Switch console. Net spending across the first quarter of 2020 in the United States reached US$ 10.9 billion , up 9% in 2020 compared to 2019 according to NPD. An increase at this point, near the planned end of the eighth generation of video game consoles , was unusual and was attributed to the pandemic. By July 2020, NPD Group reported that the total sales of video game hardware and software within
3900-481: The one employed by Disney Parks . They planned to give priority to " influencers " by providing them appointment-only presentations on new games. Additionally, with these changes, the ESA were considering adding an extra day on the Tuesday of the convention week that would be an industry-only day before the floor of the convention was opened to public passes. Sony affirmed it would not attend the 2020 show, stating that
3978-869: The pandemic as a popular activity to counter physical distancing for society , a practice recommended by the World Health Organization that helped boost revenues for many companies in the gaming industry. There have still been negative impacts on the industry, notably with major trade events like E3 2020 cancelled or postponed which may have impacted relationships between the smaller developers and publishers. This has particularly impacted indie developers who typically use these events for face-to-face meetings with potential partners to gain funding and publishing support, and caused them to have to delay or cancel projects. Many esport leagues had to alter plans for their games, transitioning from live events to remote play or cancellation altogether. Portions of
SECTION 50
#17327766105864056-850: The pandemic begins to be resolved. However, it did not impact plans for Microsoft and Sony to release the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 respectively in fall 2020. Many trade events and expositions for the industry were cancelled or postponed due to bans against public gatherings during the pandemic. The pandemic led to some longer term changes in the way the industry handled public outreach, such an increasing its reliance on digital marketing. The increasing importance of Nintendo Direct streams are an example of this. Most esports events are based on online games, but are typically played in local arenas to reduce network latency between players as well as to provide an audience. The pandemic caused many of these events to either become cancelled or switch to
4134-406: The pandemic restrictions , the video game industry has been more resilient. Most video game developers, publishers, and operators have been able to maintain operations with employees remote working to sustain game development and digital releases, though some productivity issues arose. With many people globally at home and unable to work, online gaming has observed record numbers of players during
4212-611: The pandemic was Grand Theft Auto Online . The game reached one of its highest simultaneous player count of 267,000 players at the beginning of 2020. Fall Guys and Among Us were particularly popular during this time, with the former being released during the pandemic and the latter receiving a surge of popularity. Some non-online games were also thematically compared to the pandemic, such as The Longing and Presentable Liberty . Microsoft Flight Simulator , first released in August 2020, has been considered popular during
4290-416: The pandemic, as many saw it as a safer alternative to travelling. Other games, such as The Last of Us Part II , Roblox and Project CARS 3 , were also popular during the pandemic. Towards the end of 2023 and continuing into 2024, the video game industry saw a large number of layoffs , with over 10,000 jobs lost in 2023 and at least 8,000 in 2024 by February 2024. While other factors contributed to
4368-683: The pandemic. On 14 June 2020, the BBC reported that about 22 million sports viewers turned to virtual races when lockdowns were implemented. Questions over the future of esports rose with Formula 1 returning in July 2020. Generally, sales of video games have increased as a result of stay-at-home and lockdown orders from the pandemic, as people turned to video games as a pastime. The NPD Group reported that video game sales in North America in March 2020 were up 34% from those in March 2019, and video game hardware up by 63% – which included more than twice
4446-409: The porn vendors to find us. That particular year it was pouring rain, and the rain leaked right over our new Genesis system. I was just furious with the way CES treated the video game industry, and I felt we were a more important industry than they were giving us credit for." Sega did not return to CES the following year, and several other companies exited from further CES shows. Separately, in 1994,
4524-488: The premier trade show for the video game industry. The first event was held from May 11–13, 1995 at the Los Angeles Convention Center , which would generally be the convention's location in future years. The organizers were unsure of how successful this would be, but by the end of the convention, they had booked most of the space at the Convention Center, and saw more than 40,000 attendees. In
4602-404: The press. During its existence, E3 was the world's largest and most prestigious annual gaming expo. E3 included an exhibition floor for developers, publishers, and manufacturers to showcase their titles and products for sale in the upcoming year. Before and during the event, publishers and hardware manufacturers usually held press conferences to announce new games and products. Before 2017, E3
4680-502: The profitable IGN division would be spun off into a new company. In March 2012, UGO ceased to exist as a staffed website and was dormant for a short period. Later in 2012, UGO.com relaunched as a self-described "pop culture comedy site", which focused on producing original videos about movies, comics and videogames with a humorous tone. On February 4, 2013, UGO.com was purchased as part of the IGN network of websites acquired by Ziff Davis , and
4758-435: The rest of the year including the late-year holiday season as well as to view for press coverage of upcoming games. As the game industry grew rapidly during the early 1990s, industry professionals felt that it had outgrown the older trade shows. According to Tom Kalinske , CEO of Sega America, "The CES organizers used to put the video game industry way, way in the back. In 1991, they put us in a tent, and you had to walk past all
SECTION 60
#17327766105864836-404: The same month, Ubisoft also announced that they would not be attending E3 2023, and would be hosting their own presentation event in June instead. On March 29, IGN reported that both Sega and Tencent would be skipping E3 2023. On March 30, 2023, the 2023 event was cancelled because of a lack of "sustained interest". According to ESA's president, Stanley Pierre-Louis, the choice to cancel
4914-414: The sector that relied on physical products, such as retail stores and peripheral makers, as well as those dependent on in-person activities such as quality assurance through playtesting, ratings evaluation, and marketing, also struggled with global stay-at-home orders . As the origin of the pandemic, China is expected to impact the supply chains for electronics, which may limit hardware availability once
4992-406: The situation around the outbreak. On March 11, 2020, the ESA announced that E3 2020 had been cancelled due to the pandemic. The ESA also claimed that they would both fully refund prospective attendees and exhibitors and devise a virtual event that would enable exhibitors to hold digital presentations during the same week in lieu of a physical meeting. However, by April 7, 2020, the ESA stated that
5070-414: The space in 2022 and 2023. The virtual event faced a mixed reception among users and the industry, including issues with the event's official mobile app, and assessments that E3 as a virtual event was redundant to streaming presentations that could be held as standalone events by publishers. While Mayor Eric Garcetti stated that the ESA had planned E3 2022 to be an in-person event, on January 7, 2022,
5148-481: The spread of SARS-CoV-2 . To help reduce demand during peak hours, the Akamai content delivery network for many video games and major digital storefronts such as Xbox Live , PlayStation Network , and Steam capped download speeds and encouraged the users to download at off-peak hours. During quarantine and lockdown, Ubisoft announced an update for Just Dance 2020 to keep players active: customers who owned
5226-780: The video game industry had formed the Interactive Digital Software Association (IDSA, later becoming the Entertainment Software Association, ESA, in 2003) in response to attention the industry had drawn from the United States Congress over a lack of a ratings system in late 1993. The IDSA was formed to unify the video game industry and establish a commission, the Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB) to create
5304-465: The vision for E3 2020 did not meet their goals, and instead would showcase their games at other events throughout the year. In the wake of Sony's announcement, ESA affirmed that the 2020 show "will be an exciting, high-energy show featuring new experiences, partners, exhibitor spaces, activations, and programming that will entertain new and veteran attendees alike". On February 12, 2020, Geoff Keighley , host of E3 Coliseum and The Game Awards , released
5382-588: Was an annual trade event for the video game industry organized and presented by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA). It was held principally in Los Angeles from 1995 to 2019, with its final iteration held virtually in 2021. The event hosted developers , publishers , hardware manufacturers, and other industry professionals who used the occasion to introduce and advertise upcoming games, hardware, and merchandise to
5460-427: Was an industry-only event; the ESA required individuals wishing to attend to verify a professional relationship with the video game industry. With the rise of streaming media , several press conferences were broadcast to the public to increase their visibility. E3 2017 became open to the public for the first time, with 15,000 general-admittance passes for those who wanted to attend. When hosted in Los Angeles, E3
5538-404: Was announced that Hearst Corporation would acquire UGO Entertainment to expand its interactive media division. On January 6, 2009, UGO Entertainment acquired 1UP.com and its associated sites from publisher Ziff Davis . In May 2011, IGN Entertainment announced that it would acquire UGO from Hearst in a cash and stock. At the same time, its parent company News Corporation also announced that
5616-420: Was held in the Los Angeles Convention Center . The event was cancelled for the first time in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic , and the event in 2021 was held as a virtual event to mixed reception. The 2022 event was cancelled also due to the pandemic, and with no virtual event held. The ESA had planned to return to a full in-person convention in 2023 with a new format, including a fan convention component at
5694-417: Was intending to hold E3 in 2024, they were looking themselves to find a balance that works for the industry. The ESA affirmed in September 2023 that there would be no E3 2024, that they would not be using the LACC in the immediate future, and that ReedPop was no longer working to help organize future events. The ESA stated they were still in discussions with their partners on E3 2025 and future shows, with
5772-533: Was not solely responsible for their decision to end E3 but helped to inform their choice. Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the video game industry The video game industry has been substantially impacted by COVID-19 pandemic restrictions in various ways, most often due to concerns over travel to and from China or elsewhere, and delays in the manufacturing processes within China. In contrast to many other economic sectors that are drastically affected by
5850-520: Was publicly accessible from the ESA's site. The list contained the information of over 2,000 people, most of them being the press and social media influencers that had attended E3 2019. ESA removed the list after it was found, and apologized for allowing the information to become public. However, using similar techniques to access the 2019 data, users found similar data for over 6,000 attendees of past E3 events still available on user-authenticated portions of their website; these too were subsequently pulled by
5928-679: Was renamed to the E3 Media and Business Summit, and moved into the July timeframe, about two months later in the year than previous shows. The 2007 show was held at the Barker Hangar at the Santa Monica Airport and other nearby hotels in Santa Monica, California with attendance limited to about 10,000, and was the last time the show was not physically held at the Los Angeles Convention Center. The 2008 event returned to
6006-526: Was seen to play a major part in other console wars, with journalists reporting on which manufacturer "won" E3 based on their product offerings. In 1996, IDG and the IDSA tried a Japanese version of E3, in preparation for a worldwide series of events, at the Makuhari Messe in Tokyo (as E3 Tokyo '96) in association with TV Asahi . Although Sony Computer Entertainment was the show's original sponsor,
6084-510: Was shut down on February 21, 2013. The UGO Networks featured websites such as Hero Machine, a Flash-based website allowing to create one's own superhero and share it; Studio UGO, featuring exclusive live music performances; Actress Archives, a website focusing on actress and female entertainer related news, photo galleries, and videos; and Caster's Realm, a blog that featured news and information on MMORPGs . Electronic Entertainment Expo E3 (short for Electronic Entertainment Expo )
#585414