E3 2021: Jaw-Dropping Losses Unveiled - Find Out the Shocking Figures!
E3 2021, the highly anticipated trade show by the Entertainment Software Association, incurred significant financial losses, as revealed by a recent report Despite being held as planned, the event resulted in millions of dollars in deficits
According to recently disclosed tax filings from the Entertainment Software Association, E3 2021 incurred significant financial losses for its organizers. This revelation came shortly after public records indicated the potential cancellation of the next two E3 events. Although the ESA quickly refuted these rumors regarding E3 2024 and 2025, the future of the event is still uncertain. This uncertainty primarily stems from the fact that three out of the last four editions of E3 were canceled.
As for the one exception, E3 2021 proved to be a financial loss for the ESA according to its latest tax statement. The trade association invested over $6 million in organizing the event over a 10-week period, but the revenue generated amounted to just $3.4 million. It is worth noting that the $2.6 million difference may actually be greater, as the ESA's tax statement only covers the 12-month period starting April 2021, and the planning for the digital-only E3 2021 likely commenced before that. Additionally, the $6 million expenditure does not include employee wages and only includes a select few of the nonprofit's highest-compensated independent contractors during the 2022 fiscal year.
Paragon Creative Agency and Smithbucklin received $3,900,807 and $584,119, respectively, for managing trade shows. Game Cloud Network was compensated $1,628,333 for its E3 Online Platform, which faced significant criticism and sparked calls for E3 to enhance its online presentations. Additionally, the ESA allocated $9.68 million towards wages during the examined 12-month period. Although the 2021 E3 was not the sole focus for ESA employees during the first 10 weeks of the detailed fiscal year, this number indicates that the extrapolated expenses of the show could be approximately $1.8 million higher.
These disappointing financial figures raise further concerns about the future of E3, which has experienced a decline in reputation since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The organizers explained the pandemic as the primary reason for canceling the 2020 and 2022 editions of the show, while this year's E3 faced cancellation due to a general lack of interest from publishers. With this state of affairs and despite the ESA's insistence that the event could make a comeback in some form next year, there is already a widely held belief in the public consciousness that E3 may never fully recover from its cancellation in 2023.
Source: ESA, IGN
