An Ode to E3
Remembering the Greatest Gaming Event Ever.
My E3 2013-2023 10 Year Anniversary Retrospective.
At the time of this writing would have been E3 2026 and the 32nd E3 event. Sadly, E3 ended in 2023 after nearly 30 years of being the mecca Super Bowl event for gamers.
I had the privilege to go 7 times from 2013-2019 from my early to late thirties. I had so much fun every single time I went over the years and still miss it to this day.
What is E3 and how did I even get to go? Well, I’ll be writing about all of that in this entry!
What was E3?
E3, the Electronic Entertainment Expo was an annual trade show for the gaming industry held from 1995-2021. I remember seeing articles and images of CES (the Consumer Electronics Show) in magazines like Nintendo Power, Gamepro, Electronic Game Monthly, Game Players, and more.
Video Game vendors were fed up always being put in the back sections of CES where they wouldn’t get that much visibility. The ESA (Electronics Software Association) started E3 in 1995 as a mostly video game dedicated event where gaming companies would be front and center instead of getting less attention than the latest TVs at CES.
I was in the 8th grade when the first E3 happened in 1995 and was blown away seeing it in magazines and it looked like absolute heaven for gamers like me. It was being held at the Los Angeles Convention Center (LACC) which wasn’t too far from where I lived. But since E3 was a trade show and not a general convention open to the public, there was no way I could have gone. Also, it was in May so I couldn’t just take the time off school when I was getting ready to graduate the 8th grade for obvious reasons.
In order to get into E3, you needed to show some proof you were part of the video game industry with a paystub, ID, etc. However, this requirement was very loose (hey, I got in!) as I saw people from Warner Bros, FUNimation (now Crunchyroll), and even the health industry get badges. I absolutely guarantee you that 90% of the attendees at E3 just got the badge hookup from their friends who had legitimate credentials.
Bob from McDonalds could use the credentials from his buddy Mike from Microsoft saying he was gonna be Mike’s cameraman or something.
Over the years, I would keep up with E3 news through magazines and the internet, always dreaming of attending one day.
My friends in high school made up a rumor that Bleem (one of the first working PlayStation 1 emulators) had a booth at E3 and Sony cursed them out and trashed their booth. I high doubt this happened, but I did witness some Sony and Microsoft employees yell at each other during my first E3 in 2013, so maybe the story isn’t that far fetched.
My First Attempt to Go
In 2004 when I was in college, I was contacted by a friend who was working for an online gaming news outlet. He asked if I had room for him and his crew to stay in Los Angeles for the duration of E3 and he would hook me up with the badge. I asked how did he even get access to E3 and he told me his gaming news website had the hookups and were qualified to go. I was pretty much told “We’ll get you the badge”.
Unfortunately, he was going to come with his 10 crew members and I definitely didn’t have the room in the place I was renting at the time. I was almost considering housing them at my parent’s place, but I didn’t want to put that burden on them, so my 2004 E3 plans were a no-go.
I never spoke with this friend again.
Still apologizing to this day!
My first E3
In 2013, my Battle Geek Plus (BGP) YouTube channel and website were about a year and a half old around 1000+ subscribers. Another friend messages me asking if I’m going to E3 that year and I tell him that I still don’t have any credentials to go. He tells me to apply with the BGP website and YouTube channel on the E3 website. I do this, but I sadly get a rejection email a few days later for “not being part of the gaming industry”.
I can’t blame E3 as we were barely getting any views and traffic in 2013, so my friend hooks me up with Josh Hughes who runs the indie game studio Team Kaizen/Add-a-Tudez Entertainment and Josh gives us his business credentials to apply with. Within a few days, I get the confirmation from E3 that our passes have been accepted, so I was excited after 18 years to finally go to my first E3 with me and the BGP crew!
E3 2013 - An Unforgettable Experience and the PS4 Reveal
Shortly after getting our E3 passes approved, I coincidentally got an email from Sony saying I was invited to the PS4 reveal event at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. I couldn’t believe my luck as not only was I going to E3, I was also going to see the PS4 reveal!
On June 10, 2013, I drove up to the Los Angeles Convention Center on Day 0 which was the day before E3 would officially start to get my badge and go to the PS4 reveal event.
I got my badge, along with my wristband to attend the PS4 reveal and saw the massive Titanfall mech inside the LACC hall. There was alot of security around warning us to not take any pictures before E3 officially began the next day. Since I came super early in the day and had a ton of time to waste, I wandered around the LACC hall in awe seeing all of the E3 and gaming company banners.
As soon as the afternoon hit, I went over to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum which was only a few blocks away. I hadn’t been there since 1988 when my dad took me and the family to a football game with the Raiders vs. Dolphins where the Dolphins won and became my favorite NFL team.
I gotta say Sony REALLY knows how to cater to their guests as they had multiple tables setup with free dinner and drinks, saving me the money to eat out somewhere else. I would also further experience more of Sony’s great hospitality when I became an indie dev for them 10 years later in 2023.
After dinner, we all got seated inside the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and cheered when we saw the PS4 reveal on their massive multi monitor setup. I immediately wanted a PS4 day one, but sadly would lose my job right before it came out, making me wait until 2014 to finally get one.
Video of me in 2013 after the PS4 reveal. Complete with my awkward pauses! Man, I weighed so little back then!
The next day, I took the BGP crew with me as we were excited to go to our very first E3. Now the entire convention center was open and saw a ton of people walking around. We went into South Hall and HOLY CRAP!
The pictures from the magazines and websites and even the tales from my friends that I’ve seen and heard over the years could not do E3 justice.
You absolutely had to be there in person to see the true spectacle.
The booths, the decor, the kiosks, the people. It was gaming HEAVEN.
E3 was truly my new home. I never wanted to leave.
Shotgun Advertising Approach
Since we were still a very small channel with 1000+ subs at the time, I needed to hustle with companies so I could get access to insider info, free games, etc and anything else that could help our channel. I passed out my badly made BGP business card to the representatives at the media booths for every company I could. I recall the Bethesda and Sony reps looking a bit irked at the card and the Sony rep handing it back to me. lol.
Sadly, with all of the cards I passed out, nobody followed up or emailed me, but that was fine! I was a newbie and at least I tried to hustle get our name out there.
Dinner with Square-Enix?!
While waiting in line at the Eidos-Montreal booth (who was owned by Square-Enix at the time), my BGP crewmate Heather got into an unruly encounter with an individual who insulted her tattoos. Luckily, an Eidos-Montreal developer intervened and befriended Heather complimenting her tattoos. When we all met up, the developer invited us to dinner at a nearby hotel completely hosted and paid for by Square-Enix!
Yes, Square-Enix!
We got to mingle with so many of the Eidos-Montreal and Square-Enix reps and devs talking about all things gaming and I also got a ton of business cards who actually did reply my emails!
I couldn’t believe we just had a delicious Italian dinner with Square-Enix and Eidos-Montreal. I may not have gotten our channel recognized on the show floor, but Heather was really the one who won E3 2013 for us. We had dinner with Square-Enix and Eidos-Montreal for our very first E3!
I was so BLOWN AWAY by the entire experience that I VOWED to come back to E3 every year, no matter what it took!
E3 2014: The Struggle to Get There and my Personal Favorite One
Unfortunately in the fall of 2013 several months after E3, I lost my job at a real estate company, forcing me to cancel my PS4 and Xbox One preorders. I enrolled at a temp agency that would look for jobs for me and I spent 2013-2014 struggling to keep a job as these jobs would be temporary and only last for a few weeks to a few months.
I applied for E3 with the Team Kaizen credentials again, but didn’t have the same enthusiasm like in 2013 as I didn’t know if I would be able to attend. During this time, it was tough to keep a temp job for more than 2-3 weeks or less. Sometimes I was lucky to even have a job for more than 3 days. I started developing panic attacks and anxiety thinking I wouldn’t be able to pay my bills on time.
Luckily, the temp job I was at during E3 2014 was understanding and let me attend as my temp agency gave me full vacation pay. I was also able to stay at this job from April all the way to August 2014.
Now as a 1 year attendee of E3, I had a different approach to E3 2014. I contacted certain companies beforehand thanks to Games Press which is a resource to contact industry reps beforehand. I no longer decided to do the shotgun approach going to all the media booths at the various vendors and hand out my business card nobody would even look at. While most of the super big companies didn’t respond, I was surprised who I got meetings with.
We were able to get meetings with the developers of Oddworld Inhabitants, the developers of Oddworld Abe’s Oddysey and was able to make a silly promo video for them.
Our Oddworld video which the developers loved!
We also did a fun video with the old Screwattack who I contacted beforehand. I put words in Conan O’ Brien’s mouth!
Conan O’ Brien didn’t even look at me like the peon I was, I was literally inches away from him!
We got meetings with Bandai Namco in their private rooms to preview the first Dragon Ball Xenoverse and the original Lords of the Fallen. The Japanese Bandai Namco reps were so awesome that they even offered us a place to stay and a tour of Japan if we ever visited!
Sadly, we never took them up on it, but it was extremely cool that Bandai Namco themselves was willing to offer that to me, my crew, and our small YouTube channel of 1500+.
The biggest meeting of all was with PDP to sample their Wired Fight Pad controllers for the WiiU to coincide with the release of Super Smash Bros for the WiiU and got us our first brand deal with Nintendo!
Even though the Wired Fight Pads were mostly a PDP manufactured product, they did have Nintendo branding and characters on them and PDP had to get approval from Nintendo for us to make a promo for them.
It took months for Nintendo to look at our channel to see if we were a good fit to represent them, but we got approved. I was floored that we got a promotional opportunity from the big N themselves that even channels far larger than ours couldn’t get. Our channel was immediately cleared to use any Nintendo footage and we were exempt from the now defunct Nintendo Creators Program where Nintendo took some ad revenue if you made Nintendo videos and had to go through a long sign up process.
Out of the Big Three (Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft), I can’t believe Nintendo was the first of them we actually worked with to do video promos. Sadly, we never did work with Nintendo again until I became a dev, but I’m still blown away over a decade later that we got to work with them in any capacity as a smaller channel.
The rest of E3 2014 was amazing and I couldn’t even begin to list the large amount of games I played and the amazing people I met. I’m glad I weathered the storm of my job situation and had such an unforgettable experience. Luckily before E3 2015, I was finally able to find stable employment at a permanent job where I’m still working today.
E3 2017 - Opening to the Public
I had great times at E3 2015 and 2016, but I was concerned in 2017 when E3 announced it was finally opening to the public for the very first time. This meant people could just pay a $250 badge fee and get in without the need for credentials.
While this sounded great for everyone, there were a lot of problems with this.
E3 isn’t a standard gaming convention. It’s mostly an industry trade show to show off products to vendors, journalists, and influencers to build hype for the upcoming year. People came to E3 to make business deals and get material for their outlets.
There weren’t a ton of cosplayers, gatherings, anime music video contests, masquerades or anything else from a normal convention.
Normal industry people (and people who got the hookups like me and my crew) had the standard clear badges while the General Population (GenPop) had yellow/orange badges so vendors could tell people apart.
Me and the normal people were able to access E3 2017 early and 12 noon was when GenPop was allowed in. Oh boy, we were not prepared for the onslaught that was coming..
E3 2017 - The Flood of GenPop
I recall me and my crew getting some meetings setup around the LACC as soon as we entered E3 2017. By the time noon started, we saw a flood of people rampaging through South Hall, making the show floor more filled than I ever saw it.
It was incredibly hard to navigate the floor as I was trying to make my way to the Capcom booth for my Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite appointment. Luckily, I wasn’t late as I got to the Capcom media booth in time and saw one GenPop guy angry he wouldn’t be let into the media booth like I was. I remember confirming my appointment with Capcom rep and awkwardly going into the booth looking at the GenPop guy as he looked at me with extreme jealously. Luckily he didn’t jump me after I got out of my appointment.
One of my BGP crew members was so distraught by the entire flood of GenPop people that he didn’t ever want to come back to E3 again and I couldn’t blame him.
We did all of our scheduled appointments on Day One and I didn’t even go to either of the show floors on Day 2 because of the massive flood of GenPop people. I spent most of my day at The Novo nearby watching E3 panels with Hideo Kojima, Ed Boon, and many more gaming industry veterans. I only went back to the LACC for a later afternoon appointment me and my crew had on Day 2 and was glad I avoided the show floors.
Day 3 wasn’t too bad as most of the people came on Day 1 and 2, but I remember feeling the exhaustion of having to navigate the larger crowds in comparison to previous years.
The Beginning of the End
The ESA learned from the mistakes from E3 2017 and E3 2018 felt smoother as there was far better crowd control and more organized lines.
E3 2019 would mark the final physical show and it was surprising as Microsoft and Sony bowed out of the show. Microsoft held a smaller showcase in their own Microsoft Theatre (now the Peacock Theatre) and Sony had no booths or anything else. It was strange going to West Hall and seeing the large space once used by Sony and Microsoft being replaced with an eSports setup. There were far less people and the atmosphere felt incredibly chill compared to past E3’s.
Sadly, I went alone to E3 2019 as one of my crew members decided to never come back after 2017 and the other 2 needed to find new jobs. I’m sure they would have all enjoyed the chill atmosphere of E3 2019 in comparison to 2017 for sure.
In my eyes, E3 2019 was the last and final one.
I was excited for E3 2020 as the ESA was going to make it longer with 2 full days dedicated to just the industry people like myself and the rest of the days for GenPop. I got our hotel reserved and badges ready to go until the pandemic shut it down.
E3 2021 was mostly a showcase of trailers online and was technically the final E3.
The end of E3
I was excited for E3 2023 for a multitude of reasons.
Reedpop, the parent company behind PAX and many other conventions was going to take over. They were going to give industry members a dedicated 2 days and the rest of the days to GenPop like E3 2020 was going to be along with some other changes. They didn’t just want it to be a show floor for vendors and fans, but a whole new experience.
It was going to be my 10th anniversary coming to E3 since 2013. 10 is always a nice commemorative number!
2023 was the year I finally formed Battle Geek Plus as real company, turning it into Battle Geek Plus, L.L.C.
Limited Liability Company? I consider it more “Lookin’ Legit, Captain!”
All of my former BGP crew members were willing to go, even if they weren’t part of BGP anymore. It was like the band was getting back together. I even had a plan to cook rice and ribs for a night or 2 since 2 of my crew members moved to LA, so we wouldn’t have to eat at the over expensive restaurants.
I was going to go as a developer instead of an influencer, so I had no business plans to meet with companies. This was going to be the first E3 where I could just relax and play the games without doing business meetings. Every E3 was always fun, but tiring as I always made appointments and could only just relax and walk the floor on Day 3. I used to do yearly E3 videos from 2013-2017, but it was so tiring lugging my camera equipment around that I stopped doing the yearly videos in 2018-2019 and mostly just stuck to instagram and twitter posts.
As grateful as I was to Team Kaizen for helping us get into E3 from 2013-2019, I was finally excited to have “Battle Geek Plus, L.L.C.” on my badge as a rite of passage now that I had a legitimate company.
I registered all of my info and sent in my business license along with my steam page as my industry proof.
Sadly a few weeks later, we all got the news that E3 2023 was cancelled.
I was still hopeful as I was willing to wait for E3 2024 and beyond…
But sadly, that day would never come.
In December of 2023, E3 had posted that it was time to say goodbye. After nearly 30 years, the biggest and best gaming event ever had now closed it doors.
Why E3 Died
There are many many many reasons why E3 died and you could see them coming from a mile away. In my opinion, the signs of E3’s demise started as far back as 2011-2012 when Nintendo stopped having a their usual presentation and just had an online direct. While Nintendo still had a presence on the show floor up until the end, this set the precedent for all of the other gaming companies to follow suit.
Floor space at E3 is expensive. VERY expensive.
Smaller booths are already at the 6 figure mark and companies like Nintendo, Square-Enix, Capcom, and more had to pay MILLIONS for their fancier setups.
Not to mention housing and feeding their staff.
It doesn’t make financial sense to spend MILLIONS on floor space to only be seen by 60k+ people when you can just upload a trailer or direct that will only cost thousands to be seen by millions online.
Live streaming and the internet were a major factor that helped kill E3 far before it actually ended. E3 was on death’s door for a very long time. Some people said it was going downhill since the mid 2000’s thanks to the advent of the internet.
There was a saying that it’s easier to cover E3 when you’re not at E3. Most of the announcements are made at the showcases BEFORE E3 and E3 itself is where you made business deals and play the games on the show floor. It was far more convenient to watch the announcements online and react in real time than being there and taking your phone out where you weren’t allowed to by the venue staff.
In 2017, EA didn’t want to pay for the expensive floor space at the LACC for E3 and they didn’t want to cater to journalists and industry people. They did an event called EA Play closer to Hollywood where they can get direct interactions and feedback from their fans which I attended.
I’ve spoken to alot of developers over the years at E3 and they confessed they didn’t like attending the show due to it taking time away from the harsh deadlines of developing games. Several devs told me that they have to rush builds out to show people on the floor and weren’t proud with the results.
As much as I LOVED going to E3, it didn’t make financial sense for the developers. Especially in the harsh financial times we live in where every second counts closer to getting a game released.
E3 2023 was cancelled due to companies not wanting to spend the money on the floor space and losing time to develop their games. Not enough vendors signed up and many like Sega, Atlus, and more bowed out as E3 2023 was announced.
As badly as I want E3 to come back. I know it can’t come back. Not in today’s age. Probably never again. The risks and costs are just too high.
The Legacy of E3
When I was a kid and a teen, E3 was like the Holy Land and the Super Bowl of gaming. A magical and mystical fairy tale land, but focused on video games. It took over 18 years from 1995-2013 for me to finally enter it’s gates.
May and June have always been my favorite months of the year as they signified that the school year was ending and summer was about to begin. Every May and June from 1995 until now has always been that special time to check out all of the exciting and upcoming video game announcements.
When E3 moved to it’s June slot and I was finally able to go from 2013-2019, that became my absolute favorite time of the year. Even more than Christmas for me. I still take 2 weeks in June off not only for Juneteenth, but to celebrate the week I would have gone to E3.
I was taking a walk one time in my neighborhood for my daily exercise in 2024 on what would have been Day One of E3 2024. For some weird reason, I grabbed around my neck, thinking I still had my E3 badge and lanyard. I knew that E3 was already gone and I hadn’t walked the LACC halls since E3 2019.
Yet, some long dormant muscle memory made me think of being back at E3. Even though I was an hour down south at that current time. I wasn’t in the halls of the LACC, but walking outside with the fresh air. It still felt very vivid that I was back at E3 again, even for that split second when I grabbed around my neck, thinking I had to readjust my badge so my name would show to everyone even though it had been 5 years since I was there.
In 2025, I took that same walk, but didn’t grab around my neck that time. I walked just remembering the good times at E3. I knew it was gone, but still missed it dearly.
I decided to go to Summer Game Fest 2025 for the very first time in person as I talked about in this blog entry.
My google maps directed me nearly on the same path on the 405 to the 110 I would take to E3 in the past. It felt incredibly nostalgic being in that traffic again.
I had a great time being with a large crowd of like minded people in a smaller venue, enjoying the game announcements. It was kind of like being at a mini-E3.
E3 was just more than a trade show and announcement platform for me. It was the place that made me feel proud to be a gamer and every year I went, I felt like:
“I made it.”
I met so many great people, played so many great games, did so many after parties, and experienced so many amazing things there. Going to E3 taught me how to hustle and talk to actual companies and learn the business side of things. I even have life long friends and connections that I still have to this day. E3 even followed me on twitter/x!
One of the best things that came out of E3 is that it helped re-ignite my desire to do game development again. After speaking with so many developers and hanging with my friends from Team Kaizen, the itch to make games was coming back. I’ve always respected and sympathized with developers even though I gave up game dev from 2006-2021 which I talked about in this entry.
At E3 2018, I attended this gathering at a sushi restaurant called “The Big Indie Pitch”. I met up with my Team Kaizen friends and other aspiring developers trying to pitch their games to publishers. I don’t know how many were successful, but I was there cheering my friends on and made new friends. I told them “I don’t make games, I just play them”.
But deep inside, the desire to make games was re-igniting again. However, since I was so focused on the BGP YouTube channel, I had to make that a priority and I couldn’t use my spare time to research game development.
It would take me until 2021 to finally pivot from doing YouTube videos to coming back to making games. I don’t know if I would have gone back to making games if it wasn’t for E3 and many other factors, but E3 was a huge part of it.
Even with E3 gone, there are still a ton of gaming events like the Game Developers Conference, Summer Games Fest, PAX, IGN Live, Tokyo Game Show, and many others. It’s time I stepped out of my Southern California bubble and attend more of these. I’ve been itching for another big gathering of gamers, even if it’s not E3 anymore.
I’ll always cherish the 7 times from 2013-2019 I went to E3 and will always have the great memories to look back on. I shouldn’t feel sad that it’s all over, but I should feel happy I got to go all those 7 times. There may never be another event like E3, but there are many others that still embody the spirit of bringing gamers together.
I haven’t been back to the LACC since E3 2019, but maybe one day I’ll be back there for another event. I can still remember the layout of the LACC like the back of my hand.
One day.
Check out my E3 playlist over the years!
