‘E3 killed itself’, not competition from Summer Game Fest, says Geoff Keighley
Summer Game Fest host and producer Geoff Keighley has rubbished suggestions that competition from his rival event was partly responsible for the cancellation of this year’s E3.
Keighley started Summer Game Fest in 2020 after he split from E3, where he previously held its Coliseum live events. At the time, he cited being “uncomfortable” with organiser ESA‘s plans for E3.
In an interview on the latest episode of the VGC Podcast, Keighley was asked how he felt about his reputation in some corners of the internet as “the E3 killer”.
“I think E3 sort of killed itself in a way,” Keighley replied. “I understand why people say [SGF killed E3], but I think if anything, we created Summer Game Fest, and I built Summer Game Fest because I saw the wheels falling off the wagon of E3.
“As someone who loves that time of year… for two decades, E3 was part of my life since I was a 15-year-old kid. [From] the first E3 in 1995, I went to every show. I loved it and it defined my summer.”
He added: “It was so exciting to me, and it was heartbreaking to see that start to fall apart. I think they had a relevancy problem, and then they also had a participation problem over the final years.
“So yeah, I think the question is, if we didn’t do Summer Game Fest what would happen? I think things would have just kind of really splintered apart this summer.”
Here’s 15-year old me at the first-ever E3 in 1995.
E3 meant so much to me and to so many of you too.
Four years ago, I realized that E3 wasn’t evolving as it needed to compete in a global, digital world. So we started building what’s next. See at <a target="_blank" rel=«noopener» class=«link-external» href=«https://twitter.com/summergamefest?ref_src=» https:>@summergamefest
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