E3 is a trade event for the video game industry. The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) organizes and presents E3, which many developers, publishers, hardware, and accessory manufacturers use to introduce and advertise upcoming games and game-related merchandise to retailers and to members of the press. E3 includes 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 hold press conferences to announce new games and products.
The video game industry is the industry involved in the development, marketing, and monetization of video games. It encompasses dozens of job disciplines and its component parts employ thousands of people worldwide.
The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS) is a non-profit organization of video game industry professionals. It organizes the annual Design Innovate Communicate Entertain summit, better known as D.I.C.E., which includes the presentations of the D.I.C.E. Awards.
The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) is the trade association of the video game industry in the United States. It was formed in April 1994 as the Interactive Digital Software Association (IDSA) and renamed on July 21, 2003. It is based in Washington, D.C. Most of the top publishers in the gaming world are members of the ESA, including Capcom, Electronic Arts, Konami, Microsoft, Bandai Namco Entertainment, Nintendo, Sony Interactive Entertainment, Square Enix, Take-Two Interactive, Ubisoft, and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment.
PAX is a series of gaming culture festivals involving tabletop, arcade, and video gaming. PAX is held annually in Seattle, Boston, Philadelphia, and San Antonio in the United States; and Melbourne in Australia.
The Games Convention (GC), sometimes called the Leipzig Games Convention, was an annual video game event held in Leipzig, Germany, first held in 2002. Besides video games, the event also covers Infotainment, Hardware, and Edutainment. Its concept was created by the Leipziger Messe in cooperation with Bundesverband für Interaktive Unterhaltungssoftware amongst others. The 2010 Gamescon was held August 18 to August 22.
The Electronic Entertainment Expo 2009 was the 15th E3 held. The event took place at the Los Angeles Convention Center in Los Angeles, California. It began on June 2, 2009, and ended on June 4, 2009, with 41,000 total attendees.
Destructoid is a website that was founded as a video game-focused blog in March 2006 by Yanier Gonzalez, a Cuban-American cartoonist and author. It is part of the Enthusiast Gaming network.
The history of Tokyo Game Show began with its creation in 1996 and has continued through the current expo in 2017. It has been held in Chiba, Japan, annually since 1996 by Computer Entertainment Supplier's Association (CESA) and the Nikkei Business Publications.
The Electronic Entertainment Expo 2010 was the 16th E3 held. The event took place at the Los Angeles Convention Center in Los Angeles, California. It began on June 14, 2010, and ended on June 17, 2010, with 45,600 total attendees. There was also an E3 event held in Sony's PlayStation Home.
EB Games Expo, commonly known as EB Expo or EBX, is a video game trade fair / convention held annually in Australia. It is organised by EB Games Australia. It is used by many video game developers to show off their upcoming games and game-related hardware. Unlike E3, EB Expo allows members of the general public to attend. The most recent show was held in 2017 from 7–8 October.
"Into the Pixel" was an annual art exhibit centered on video game concept artwork, and started in 2004. The exhibit, sponsored by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS) and the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), was designed to showcase concept artwork from past and future video games, with sixteen winners selected from a panel of judges from both the field of video games and from art museums. The winners were presented for public display during the annual Electronic Entertainment Expo (May–June), and with subsequent showings at other video game-related exhibitions such as the Penny Arcade Expo. The winning works of art were then later auctioned at the annual D.I.C.E. Summit (February) with the funds put towards a scholarship program. For the 2013 program, more than 200 works were submitted by various artists.
The National Videogame Museum is a video game museum about the history of video games and the video game industry, located in Frisco, Texas. Opened in 2016, the museum includes classic video game arcade machines in an arcade setting, games on different video game consoles in a living room setting, games on historic computers, exhibits on the history of the industry, artifacts and memorabilia about the video game industry. One of the museum's goals is to have visitors experience the games, so there are many interactive displays which feature playable games.
The Electronic Entertainment Expo 2016 was the 22nd E3, during which several hardware manufacturers and software developers and publishers from the video game industry presented new and upcoming products to the attendees, primarily retailers and members of the video game press. The event, organized by the Entertainment Software Association, took place at the Los Angeles Convention Center from June 14–16, 2016. Approximately 50,300 people attended the event, slightly down from the previous year's. With video game consoles currently a couple years into their 8th generation, the focus of E3 2016 was primarily on new software titles, with new hardware revisions and auxiliary equipment to support the growing market sectors of 4K resolution displays and virtual reality headsets.
The Electronic Entertainment Expo 2017 was the 23rd E3, during which hardware manufacturers and software developers and publishers from the video game industry presented new and upcoming products to the attendees, primarily retailers and members of the video game press. The event, organized by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), took place at the Los Angeles Convention Center from June 13–15, 2017. It was the first E3 to allow public access to the event, and as a result, the total attendance was about 68,400 which included 15,000 in public passes.
The Electronic Entertainment Expo 1995, commonly known as E3 1995, was the first Electronic Entertainment Expo held. The event took place at the Los Angeles Convention Center from May 11–13, 1995, with 50,000 total attendees. Highlights of the 1995 show include Sony's announcement of the PlayStation's release date and pricing, Sega's surprise launch of the Sega Saturn, and Nintendo's showcase of the Virtual Boy console.
The Electronic Entertainment Expo 2018 was the 24th E3, during which hardware manufacturers, software developers, and publishers from the video game industry presented new and upcoming products to the attendees, primarily retailers and members of the video game press. The event, organized by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), took place at the Los Angeles Convention Center from June 12–14, 2018, with many companies holding press conferences in the days prior. With the industry still in the middle of the eighth generation of video game consoles, no new hardware was introduced, and publishers and developers principally focused on new games to be released in 2018 and beyond. The event drew 69,200 attendees, the largest since 2005.
The Electronic Entertainment Expo 2019 was the 25th E3 press conference, during which hardware manufacturers, software developers, and publishers from the video game industry presented new and upcoming products to the attendees, primarily retailers and members of the video game press. The event, organized by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), took place at the Los Angeles Convention Center from June 11–13, 2019. Many companies held its press conferences in the days prior, with the exception of Sony, which skipped the event for the first time.
The Electronic Entertainment Expo 2020 would have been the 26th E3 press conference, during which hardware manufacturers, software developers, and publishers from the video game industry would have presented new and upcoming products. The event, organized by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), was to take place at the Los Angeles Convention Center from June 9–11, 2020. However, due to concerns over the COVID-19 pandemic, the ESA announced it would cancel the event, marking the first time since the launch of E3 in 1995 that it was not held. In lieu of that, several publishers made plans to continue with presentations of game announcements during the planned E3 period, while others opted to use more traditional marketing throughout the year.
