The future of E3 is in question following a massive security breach that released the personal data of thousands of industry professionals, and further action from the ESA has led many to believe the demise of the legendary games conference is imminent. For those unfamiliar, news that the E3 website contained a list of over 2,000 professionals attending available to the public due to a website vulnerability broke earlier this month and resulted in a lot of concern and anxiety for those affected.
Things didn’t get better when it became known before the ESA had managed to take the information down. Although it has since been removed, the security breach is a major liability for many attendees, some of whom have already been targeted by hate groups in the past. There were several other obvious issues with the storage of the information, too – it wasn’t password-protected, for instance, and it’s unclear if previous years’ information had been as poorly secured. E3 has already been struggling to remain relevant as more publishers and developers skip the showfloor for their own private streams, saving money and ensuring more eyeballs on their product thanks to it being the sole purpose of the show. With the trust of industry professionals now broken, where does E3 go from here?
Ultimately, it feels as if early reports from Kotaku were just the tip of the iceberg for the nightmare the ESA now faces. Many journalists and content creators now have to worry about invasions of privacy and harassment should malicious parties come across their information. There’s less reason to attend E3 thanks to the ability to stream announcements from studios’ home locations, and it’s becoming such a widespread occurrence that E3 2019 saw Sony completely skip the show. When an industry leader doesn’t see reason to attend the expo, there’s a major problem.
E3 also doesn’t have the luxury of exclusivity. Whereas it was previously the largest show in the industry, there are challengers emerging – ones that are exhibiting growth rather than the slow decline the ESA and E3 have been experiencing over the last several years. Companies are increasingly deciding to host major reveals at events like PAX West and Gamescom. Both of those events cover major regions in North American and Europe respectively – and Tokyo Game Show can do the rest for Japan, where it is already a gigantic influence.
It’s going to be hard to recover from this no matter what, but the actions exhibited by the ESA in the wake of the leak hardly build confidence for those holding out hope for a brighter future. The company’s response to the leak was an exaggerated shrug of the shoulders and a trite apology, and many affected want more. There may be lawsuits in the future for E3, but that’s if things even manage to get that far – there’s also Europe’s GDPR policy, which is responsible for data regulation and protection, which could kick into effect due to the widespread nature of the leak and how many European citizens it affected. If that happens, fines can climb up to 20 million Euro. That’s a big loss to stomach and it could result in the rapid decline of E3.
Even if things shake out in a way that E3 manages to rebound and build its public image back up a little, there’s a strong chance many former attendees will decide to skip the show in favor of conferences and conventions that are better equipped to protect their personal data. If that happens, E3 becomes less valuable to investors and exhibitors – less attendees and less personal information from those attending means a significantly more limited reach for products shown there.
Things look bleak for E3 and the ESA. With many consumers already on the fence about the importance of the event, this breach and the fallout from it could be the final nail in the coffin for a staple of the gaming industry that simply may have overstayed its welcome.
