E3 has taken another huge blow, as industry veteran Geoff Keighley has decided not to attend this year's event. Keighley has hosted the E3 Coliseum for several years now and has been a staple at the event for a long time. This will be the first time he has not attended E3 in 25 years.
Geoff Keighley has been working in the video game journalism industry for the better part of two decades. While most gamers know him from his time as the host and founder of The Game Awards, Keighley has also written for publications like GameSpot and Kotaku. Keighley was also once the executive producer of the Spike Video Game Awards, but felt that the event had become too commercial over the ten years he worked with it. Keighley has also worked with E3 for years as a presenter or interviewer before finally arranging the E3 Coliseum in 2017. During this event, he brought in developers and publishers for interviews and other in-depth industry discussions.
Geoff Keighley announced this morning on Twitter that he would not be producing E3 Coliseum nor attending E3 at all. Despite several fans on Twitter asking why he would not be attending the event, Keighley declined to give a specific reason. He did make it very clear that he would be doing other events in the future.
E3 has continued to struggle over the last few years with proving that the event is still relevant. Sony has declined to attend for two years in a row and decided to have its own release event instead. Sony has stated that E3 just doesn't align with what the company plans to focus on. Companies have begun to feel like the show is unimportant to attend considering new product launches can be directly live-streamed on Twitch or Mixer. As competitors like PAX and Gamescon rise up against E3, the event is beginning to look more and more old school and less important to the industry.
Geoff Keighley was a huge part of E3. For years he helped keep the event relevant, and his E3 Coliseum gave fans and media personnel more information than ever before. His absence will most likely irreparably change E3 forever. With big names leaving the event and the added nightmare of E3's security breach last year, things are looking very bleak for the former industry titan. At this moment it does not seem like E3 can be turned around.
Source: Geoff Keighley