So, What Are We Calling This Not-E3 Conference, Anyway?

In the magazine business, the Back Page is where you’d find all the weird goofs that we couldn’t fit in anywhere else. Some may call it “filler”; we prefer “a whole page to make terrible jokes that are tangentially related to the content of the mag”.

We don’t have (paper) pages on the internet, but we still love terrible jokes — so welcome to our semi-regular feature, Back Page. Today, Kate’s trying to find out what the heck we should be calling this mid-June video game extravaganza, if it’s not E3…

E3 ain’t happening this year. The Electronic Entertainment Expo — that’s the three ‘E’s, by the way — has been happening in some shape or form since 1995, until it was cancelled in 2020 thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic. But even then, it was supposed to take place: All the participants had been confirmed, the arena had been booked, but there just wasn’t enough time to switch it to an online event.

In 2021, still in the middle of a pandemic, it went online-only, and it was a bit of a damp squib — so it’s not entirely surprising that the Entertainment Software Association, or ESA, decided to scrap it altogether in 2022, a bit like someone cancelling their birthday party because they didn’t get enough RSVPs. Nevertheless, the rest of the games industry has rallied together to basically throw their own birthday party. With better cake. And Geoff Keighley.

(Oh, and fear not — E3 will be back next year. For now, anyway.)

So now, we’re left in this very minor pickle: What are we supposed to call this… amorphous event? It’s not E3 any more, and it feels a bit silly to call it that anyway, even if it is a nice two-character shorthand for “lots of reveals” that fits nicely into a headline.

Most games journalism outlets seem to have settled on “Not-E3”, ourselves included, presumably because it’s a lot shorter than “Summer Game Fest” and doesn’t give Geoff Keighley all the credit. But if E3 really is going the way of the dinosaurs, we can’t call it “Not-E3” forever, can we?

Perhaps what we need is some good ol’ fashioned democracy. What do you think we should call this week of game announcements, news, delays, and updates?

As always, if you have other, better suggestions, drop ’em in the comments.

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