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That E3 is suffering an identity crisis is nothing new. The video game industry's yearly jamboree has faced accusations of declining relevance for a few years now. The ascent of Steam, esports, the indie scene and online PC gaming have barely been reflected at all at a show that can't escape the slowly withering grasp of retail. Meanwhile, publishers have found it easier to communicate with gamers on their own social platforms, and through influencer surrogates on YouTube and Twitch, than by participating in the hucksterish competition for the attention of the world's press at E3.Big publishers have turned their backs on the E3 show floor, and - in EA's case - set up their own satellite events. Even for those that remain, the increasing importance of the livestreams that beam exciting new game footage direct into homes worldwide have left some stands as a vestigial presence, with huge screens showing trailers and demos on repeat, and often a distinct lack of playable video games. It got so bad that, last year, PRs were asking me if Eurogamer would continue to bother with E3 in the future. (I said we would, but more on that later.)
It used to be that E3 was packed into a day and a half of press conferences and two and a half days of frantic news-gathering on the show floor. Over the past three or four years, the focus has shifted from the show itself to a warm-up period of streams, press previews and showcases dotted all over Los Angeles (or just on the internet) that has now ballooned to a marathon 72 hours. When you arrive at the LA Convention Center on Tuesday afternoon for E3 proper, your appointment book is, of course, still full to bursting of games to see and people to meet - and it's hard to imagine it ever being otherwise - but it feels strangely like mopping up. It feels as if the main event is over, even though the actual main event has just begun.
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