Just a short time ago, the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) was a video game trade show in crisis. Longtime CEO Mike Gallagher of the Entertainment Software Association, which runs the E3 video game show, resigned in October. Sony pulled out of E3 for the first time in 24 years, even as it started preparing for the launch of the PlayStation 5. And both Electronic Arts and Activision Blizzard confirmed that they wouldn’t have large booths at the show.
But when the show opens next week (starting Saturday with publisher events and Tuesday for the main shindig), the show floor will be sold out, according to Stanley Pierre-Louis, the new CEO of the ESA. He’s the former general counsel for the ESA, the game industry’s trade group. This means that companies such as Epic Games (maker of Fortnite), Oculus VR, esports vendors, and others have soaked up the space that the big companies have abandoned in recent years. And in an exclusive interview with GamesBeat, Pierre-Louis reiterated that the show should draw about 65,000 people, about the same as last year.
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