Summer Game Fest host and producer, Geoff Keighley has dismissed suggestions that his competition with E3 led to the event being canceled. According to Keighley, E3 is killing itself. This information was disclosed by Keighley when interviewed by VGC. In an podcast interview, Geoff Keighley was asked how he felt about his reputation in some corners of the internet as an “E3 killer”.

I think E3 has killed itself. I understand why people say [SGF killed E3], but I think if anything, we created Summer Game Fest, and I built Summer Game Fest because I saw the wheels fall off the E3 train. As someone who loved those times… for 2 decades, E3 has been a part of my life since I was 15 years old. [Since] the first E3 in 1995, I’ve been to every event. I love it and it defines my summer. It was so much fun for me and so sad to see it start to fall apart. I think they had a relevance issue and then they also had a turnout issue over the last years. So yeah, I guess the question is, if we don’t have the Summer Game Fest, what will happen? I think things are going to get really messy this summer.

Geoff Keighley, Host and Producer of Summer Game Fest.

In response to suggestions that the cancellation of E3 2023 may have been rushed by the publisher deciding to go to Summer Game Fest 2023, Keighley denied this.

I understand the sentiment around it. It’s sad to me that we had to decide to go away and build something new, but we did it all in partnership with the publishers and our list of partners for Summer Game Fest hasn’t changed at all with the cancellation of E3 this year.

Everyone we’ve worked with, we’ve worked with over the months for Summer Game Fest. So there’s a world where Summer Game Fest and E3 are going to go side by side and we’ve been talking a lot with [E3 organizers] ReedPop about that possibility, because they’re more focused on major trade events and consumer events, and that’s not what we’re doing with Summer Game. Fest. Geoff Keighley, Host and Producer of Summer Game Fest

When asked about what it was like when both Summer Game Fest and E3 looked like they were competing for the same new game announcements, Keighley added:

I mean, we never really saw it. E3 was canceled in 2020 after I pulled away due to the pandemic and I started Summer Game Fest at home in the spare bedroom, not even knowing what I was doing – we were just trying to find a way to get the word out to fans.

Then, you remember, there’s the digital E3 they’re doing in 2021, which is kind of a stab at them, I think, doing something similar to what we’re doing. Then it didn’t happen last year, it didn’t happen this year. So yeah, I never really felt competitive with E3, we did something different. We’re focused on big digital events that stream live.

The Summer Game Fest itself will be held this week, June 9 2023, at 1:30 am WIB. What do you think? Do you agree or disagree, Summer Game Fest contributed to “killing” E3?