Those Who Show Up

Microsoft seizes the advantage as the industry gears up for a new generation

Every year, on Internet forums and social media, in website articles and comment sections, and even in the bars and restaurants around the Los Angeles Convention Center, people debate who has ‘won’ E3. It’s always been a facile question – the real winners are the ones who get to spend a week in the sunshine playing games and drinking free cocktails, obviously – and the very notion of one company beating another plays into the often troubling tribalistic relationship that videogame lovers have with the companies that make their favorite games and systems. But it’s always been instructive in a broader sense: only by weighing up the relative merits of various publishers’ and platform holders’ endeavors can we form a broader picture of where the industry is, and where it is headed. Yet E3 2019 was the year that consigned that question to the bin for good. It is no longer appropriate to ask who won E3. Instead, we must assess if anyone has finally managed to kill it.

The real story of E3 this generation is one of withdrawal or at least the appearance of it. The PS4 era has seen EA decamp to its own event in Hollywood, EA Play; Microsoft does likewise with the opening of the Microsoft Theater, now host to the Xbox press conference, a fan event and media appointments; and big publishers opting against having a booth presence on the E3 show floor. This year it was Activision’s turn – 2K, which didn’t bother last year, was back again with a new Borderlands to sell. Perhaps Activision will be back next year. Perhaps 2K will be gone again. Perhaps it will be someone else’s turn. Whoever it is will not make anywhere near the same impact by skipping E3 as Sony just did.