Guess we all saw that coming.

Double post, sorry

Say whatever you feel about the overall state of E3 in its last couple of years, but the reality was still that it was kind of the only true celebration that we had of the medium in which even outsiders could get a glimpse of because of how important that week was.
A great way to unify different big banner of the industry under a same place, same event and despite the dubious quality of it's shows at time, it still gave us an awful lot of memories to remember.

The new digital formats of today could never hit the same.

The first sign was back in 2013.
Nintendo and EA decided to not participate in E3 that year.
Nintendo already had something that would let them showcase their games, Nintendo Direct which started in 2011. In place of their absence in E3 they decided to go digital with Nintendo Direct, producing one every 3-6 months or so depending on the amount of games being announced. But would still showcase at E3 for some bigger announcements, like the Switch, Super Mario Odyssey, Metroid Prime 4, Smash Bros Ultimate.
Sony noticed that the Nintendo Direct was doing well, and saved them a lot of money, leading Sony to officially leave in 2018. They decided to follow the footsteps are create their own digital showcase. State of Play.
In 2021 Nintendo decided they were officially done with E3 and went fully digital.
Microsoft didn't go to E3 2023. And at that moment E3 was dead for no other big companies would go, since we are now in the digital/information age.
Thank you E3, I hope we can have something of equal quality in the future to bring the gaming companies together for some fun competitive showcasing.

2007 was the beginning of the long decline, when they scaled back, and the show was never as interesting as it had been in earlier times. It was also around that time that other shows started surpassing E3 for attendees; and soon after, for online viewers, the move to alternate online presentations, such as Nintendo Directs, made E3 redundant.

E3 used to be about the only time period that big presentations happened outside of the Christmas season. So E3 was like a taste of Christmas for gamers. But it ceased to be that around 2007.

COVID was the nail in the coffin. In 2006, no E3 would have been devastating. But, in the COVID era, no E3 made no difference.

Had it been better managed it would probably still be around. First the inexplicable scale back in 2007-2008, then opening to the public in 2017, being unable to bring the companies who were making parallel shows (EA, Bethesda) back to the fold... a bit of a death by a thousand cuts, really.

Nintendo in 2013 spelled out E3's irrelevancy and how outdated the concept was with a Nintendo Direct. Shorter. More concise/cohesive and full more more information in 40 min than long 2.5 hour awkward and cringe conferences. E3 was insufferable.

E3 was only a huge thing for about 12 years, it started declining after the Wii and PS3 launched and really started declining when Nintendo stopped having their big presentation there in 2013 followed by Sony in 2019 (and others around 2013 and after).
COVID-19 just accelerated a dying show. Without it, I still doubt E3 could've survived the 2020s.

True, digital formats are good, but it's still not the same. As everyone now is doing their best to distance from the others, so we don't have such announcement-packed week anymore.

Are gamers just not as outgoing as comic enthusiasts?
Because E3 died, but Comic-Con is still rather strong.
Comic-Con has booths of many authors, writers, artists, actors, etc.
Comic-Con has competitive cosplay competitions, and also just wonderful and creative people who love cosplay.

E3 never had as much stuff going on as Comic-Con.
How come E3 didn't adopt the Comic-Con vibe back in the Wii era? Was E3 just too early to make that be a normal thing?

E3 would've been rather cool and fun if it had more stuff like Comic-Con.