Pushing Buttons: Yes, E3 was a hot mess, but it had a magic you can never replicate on a live stream
In this week's newsletter: Gaming's biggest expo might be finished forever - and I know I'll miss the buzzy, tactile, interactive hype-fest it used to be
It seems very likely that the biggest event on the video game calendar for the past 25 years, E3, is finished.
The announcement last week that the 2023 event had been cancelled wasn't met with a huge amount of surprise in the industry - it's enormously expensive to exhibit on the show floor, it's a major commitment for development teams (already stretched by the pandemic) to provide playable demos, and the introduction of digital-only events such as Nintendo Direct and PlayStation State of Play has shown that it's possible to reach global audiences without having to pay anywhere between $20,000 and $1.5m for a big booth amid the horrible expanse of downtown Los Angeles.
GamesIndustry.biz has the latest figures on the UK games market. According to trade body UKIE, the industry was worth 7.05bn in 2022, down 17% on 2021, but still higher than pre-pandemic figures. The biggest selling games were Fifa 23 and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, surprising ... exactly no one.
Film studio Legendary has secured the movie rights to Street Fighter according to Hollywood Reporter. No doubt inspired by the success of recent Sonic and The Last of Us tie-ins, the company has bravely overlooked the critical mauling handed out to the original Street Fighter film and the financial bomb of follow-up Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li.
Bloomberg has a piece looking into Saudi Arabia's continued efforts to diversify its economy by investing heavily in video games. This comes after Prince Mohammed bin Salman announced plans to make Saudi Arabia the ultimate global hub for the games and esports sector by 2030". Bloomberg puts the investment at $38bn. The games industry is about to wade into another moral quagmire.
Meanwhile, Eurogamer ran a great list of games to play on International Transgender Day of Visibility. Trans creators and trans stories are a vital component of video game culture, so let's continue making them visible all year round.
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