The organizers of the extravagant E3 games conference pronounced the event dead in 2023. Attendance for the bombastic, news-packed trade show was on the decline in 2019, and after the Covid-19 lockdown, the organizers at the Entertainment Software Association held one more virtual-only show in 2021 before yanking the plug.
Now, the ESA is ready to move on with a new, vaguely described event called the Interactive Innovation Conference, dubbed iicon. Big game developers such as Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony Interactive Entertainment, Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, and more are already confirmed for the show.
But ESA president and CEO Stanley Pierre-Louis wants to make one thing clear: “This is not the new E3,” he tells WIRED.
Iicon, set to take place in April, 2026 in Las Vegas, will not be a trade show for game announcements, Pierre-Louis says. Nor will it be a consumer show with demos or a forum to talk about game development. He says there are already events “that do all those things very well.”
Instead, with iicon, the ESA hopes to bridge the gap between the many industries being shaped by advances in video games, from film and music to health care and education.
“We are proud of the history we had of hosting E3 and what it did to bring our industry together,” Pierre-Louis says. “But this is a completely distinct event with a different purpose and a different audience.”
The inclusion of Hollywood studios makes sense. Games and Hollywood have been enjoying a successful marriage, from the Super Mario Bros. Movie and its achievement as one of the highest grossing animated films of all time, to the critically acclaimed HBO adaptation of The Last of Us. The crossover with the music industry feels natural too, since musicians like Travis Scott and Ariana Grande have held virtual concerts in Fortnite.
More opaque is the link between video games and an industry like health care. According to Pierre-Louis, however, they’re more connected than you think. “Surgeons are learning their trade through mixed reality VR to understand how to make improvements in their skills,” he says. “ADHD and Alzheimer’s are now being treated through video games, sometimes through prescriptions.”
Organizers have not yet released details on speakers or panels that will appear, but according to Pierre-Louis, the schedule will not resemble those of the shows that have risen to take E3’s place. “If you look at how interactive entertainment has been used in a number of other fields,” he says, “you can see that it’s having a great impact even if people aren’t recognizing or celebrating it as much.”
Iicon, will be “invite-only,” so interested participants will need to register to attend. This will make room for big names across multiple industries. “What’s been missing since the sunset of E3 is the ability to bring everyone together to convene, while bringing the broader business community in,” Pierre-Louis says.
