It’s official: E3, the video game industry’s largest conference and media platform, has finally been closed.

“After more than two decades of E3, each greater than the last, it is time to say goodbye. Thanks for the memories,” the Entertainment Software Association, the video game trade association, said on its website

ESA’s decision to close E3 as an event followed the cancellation of the 2023 edition of Electronic Entertainment after several major game developers and companies, including Microsoft and Nintendo, announced they would not be attending.

The annual trade event for the video game industry was scheduled to take place June 13-16, 2023 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. This outing also marked the E3 event’s second attempt to return as an in-person event amid the pandemic.

E3 was first canceled in 2020, the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, with a virtual edition in 2021 before an in-person return planned for 2022. However, this edition was canceled both as an in-person and virtual event. In recent years, E3 has attracted up to 65,000 visitors and over 200 exhibitors.

At the same time, E3 faced competition from gaming companies that were organizing their own virtual events to share news and next-generation product launches with consumers. And since they also hosted their own direct-to-consumer livestreams (like Nintendo’s Directs, Sony’s State of Play events or even smaller indie studios like Shovel Knight Developer Yacht Club Games’ August news video also questioned the importance of E3 as an in-person event.