Very much this. It was already cheaper and easier for the big publishers to do their own streamed presentations long before the pandemic. Pretty sure Nintendo stopped bothering with E3 way before 2020.

E3 had already been on life support for almost a decade, COVID just pulled the plug to end its suffering...

Devs are struggling, publishers are cutting costs, and it seems E3 is no longer accounting much in the way of sales or advertising.

Personally, I enjoyed E3. It forced the major players (until Sony left) to provide to the audience a mission / strategy for the upcoming year, but...

... it's probably easier and effective enough to simply put livestreams online.

Can't say I'll miss it too much.

It is sad to see it end but I am not surprised, livestreams get more exposure than press events.

Honestly this was coming ever since Nintendo started there video directs.

The industry saw that Nintendo was getting the same exposure as the live presentations but saving money on not renting out the halls, the videos were also more controlled to avoid any technical difficulties.

Plus as time went on it became harder and harder to keep secrets for live events so the online media model became the cost saving popular model.

It's a bit like the end of an era.

When I was a kid - reading gaming mags - I remember waiting for E3 to see all the previews covering the upcoming games. There were no videos, obviously. But it was fascinating to observe the evolution in gaming graphics from year to year, just by watching the screenshots photos.

Good old days.
In case anyone interested - for nostalgia's sake - , here's how one of the best gaming magazines in Europe (IMO) covered the 1995 E3 (page 25 onward):
https://www.abandonware-magazines.org/affiche_mag.php?mag=30&num=611&album=oui

I wonder if they will ever to pull another E3 together. It certainly seems doubtful, at least not anywhere close to what they used to be.

but who will clap for the release vid of die hard 54 if we don't have E3?
what o its just cgi them in... ok nevermind ;)

The decline of magazines is far worse than some event.
Some magazines still exist, but their content just isn't the same anymore.

Gaming isn't the same anymore either. There was a certain nonplussed joy in reading a gaming magazine and that no longer exists. The novelty isn't quite the same.