MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
An event once called the Super Bowl of video games is gone for good after two decades.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
We're talking about the Electronic Entertainment Expo, or E3. Year after year, journalists once packed the Los Angeles Convention Center for a peek at the industry's latest and greatest innovations - products like one of the bestselling handheld consoles.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
REGGIE FILS-AIME: DS not only changes Nintendo; it changes our industry.
MARTIN: E3 would also offer a preview to the latest games, like God of War for the PlayStation.
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CHRISTOPHER JUDGE: (As Kratos) I am hungry.
MARTIN: Kahlief Adams, who host the podcast "Spawn On Me," is grieving those moments.
KAHLIEF ADAMS: E3, for me, was an aspirational goal. It was a thing that you would check off a bucket list if you got a chance to attend and get a chance to go.
MARTIN: He got that chance in 2015.
ADAMS: You could feel the weight of the room because of the pageantry, because of all of these folks across, you know, the gaming industry kind of knowing something big was going to happen.
MARTIN: That was how it felt until competing events and the pandemic drained the energy. And now for E3, the Electronic Entertainment Expo, it's game over.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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