E3's virtual convention centre is an absolute fiasco

What passes for a character creator on E3's portal
(Image credit: Entertainment Software Association)

E3 is back, baby. In lieu of an on-site show, this year's convention is taking place entirely online. But while it's easy to replace a flashy stage show with a livestream, the ESA also wants to replicate the in-person experience with an online portal—one that seeks to recreate the experience of visiting a booth, dropping a business card, and talking about brand new games. 

Ahead of a public opening this weekend, the media has been granted early access to this site. It is, in short, a shitshow.

You might've heard that this year's E3 portal has been heavily gamified. There are avatars (created with a profoundly disappointing Picrew knock-off), achievements, even daily leaderboards for being the best at networking. In concept, it's extremely goofy. In practice, it's barely even finished.

Waypoint's Austin Walker catalogued some of the weirdness in a Twitter thread earlier today. Publishers have seemingly been made to guess as to the context in which their achievements will be displayed, leading to some very vague (and several unfinished) challenges.

It's a deeply confusing way to express a system that doesn't justify its existence to begin with. Walker follows that up with a jab at some completely baffling UI sensibilities, a trend that carries over the entire site. At best, the E3 portal could be a handy list of publisher's sites and streams—but you'd never find them under all this jank.

But where some of these rushed decisions are confusing at best, others are outright hostile. The Gamer's Jade King discovered that the portal hasn't even the barest gender options, with every user on the portal declared male by default. 

It's a shockingly barebones, ill-conceived website for what's supposed to be the biggest show in the calendar. It's only more off-putting when you consider that it's only two years ago that the ESA leaked the personal data of over 2,000 journalists and content creators

"What’s most concerning is that the ESA, despite grossly mishandling data in 2019, has enlisted a team seemingly unqualified to put together anything *resembling* a passable online experience," Windows Central's Matt Brown tweeted. "If this is what’s on the surface, what’s happening behind the scenes?"

As a member of the games press, it's already hard to justify using this site. There are so many ways to reach contacts outside this hub, and we'll be watching the streams along with the rest of you over on Twitch and YouTube. 

What's wilder, to me, is that the ESA expects fans to be rushing in to try out this site when the doors open to the public on June 12th. If there's little to offer to press here, then I can safely assure you that you're missing nothing by giving this site a miss. 

Nothing, save a below-average character creator designed for LinkedIn power users.

Natalie Clayton
Features Producer

20 years ago, Nat played Jet Set Radio Future for the first time, and she's not stopped thinking about games since. Joining PC Gamer in 2020, she comes from three years of freelance reporting at Rock Paper Shotgun, Waypoint, VG247 and more. Embedded in the European indie scene and a part-time game developer herself, Nat is always looking for a new curiosity to scream about—whether it's the next best indie darling, or simply someone modding a Scotmid into Black Mesa. She also unofficially appears in Apex Legends under the pseudonym Horizon.

Read more
iicon - Interactive Innovation Conference logo
The organizers of E3 announce a new event called iicon, but it's not open to the public and you probably don't want to go anyway
Elden Ring parry character
Don't worry about missing Elden Ring Nightreign's network test on PC—nobody could play it on console either
Max, from Life is Strange: Double Exposure, looks ponderingly off into the distance.
'We all got laid off', says former Deck Nine narrative designer, after no-one was around to pick up Life is Strange: Double Exposure's GDC Awards win
An AI-generated image, posted to Activision's socials, of a fake Crash Bandicoot game that doesn't actually exist.
Finding a new and inventive way to annoy everybody, Activision has company use AI to generate fake advertisements for games that don't exist
An ankheg fights a group of adventurers while a gnomish bartender watches on in Sigil VTT, WoTC's own virtual tabletop.
D&D's new virtual tabletop is a glossy and cool idea that's already struggling with its identity in a world where jpegs and imagination are free
A fish-man looking stoic
Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen is an aggressively old-school MMO that hates hand-holding so much it won't even give you a map—but a certain type of player might just love it
Latest in Events & Conferences
Two brightly colored stormtroopers dressed like Run-DMC stand in front of PAX Australia's WELCOME HOME banner.
Tickets for PAX Australia 2025 are on sale now
Nolan North and Jennifer English, who will be hosting the Future Games Show's Spring Showcase.
Jennifer English (Shadowheart) and Nolan North (Nathan Drake) will be the illustrious hosts of the Future Games Show this year
Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree's Rellana
AGDQ 2025 kicks off this weekend, featuring an Elden Ring saxophone boss rush, an 'All Romances' run of Fallout: New Vegas, and some of the worst games ever made
Key art for the PC Gaming Show: Most Wanted
How to watch the PC Gaming Show: Most Wanted 2024
Golden Joystick awards 2024 banner
The 42nd annual Golden Joystick Awards are live now—watch the whole show here
Promo for the PC Gaming Show: Most Wanted, showing host Frankie Ward.
The PC Gaming Show: Most Wanted returns with announcements and reveals galore this December 5
Latest in News
A girl cheering in Everybody's Golf Hot Shots.
My favourite, most underrated anime golf game series is actually getting a PC entry for the first time in its nearly 30-year history
A shock trap transformed into a Lego brick in Monster Hunter Wilds.
A modder keeps turning Monster Hunter traps into Lego bricks so that the monsters will know true pain, and they've just done it again
live action Jimbo the Jester from Balatro holding a playing card and addressing the camera
You've probably been pronouncing Balatro wrong all along, but 'it's kind of a gif/jif situation'
A late afternoon view shows two young women walking past a wall-sized anime mural along Chuo-dori (Central Avenue) in the Akihabara district (known as Electric Town for its maze of electronics stores, but currently considered an almost sacred destination by members of Japan's otaku culture, drawn to Akihabara's video game centers, maid cafes, anime shops, and manga comics), located in Chiyoda Ward in central Tokyo, Japan.
OpenAI's GPT-4o model gets image generation update for all of your anime-style selfie needs
Wuk Lamat, a character in Final Fantasy 14: Dawntrail, stares in an unimpressed manner.
'I can't really say what they were thinking' says whistleblowing modder, as Final Fantasy 14's attempt to thwart stalkers falls terribly short of the mark
Raidou Kuzonoha and pals, looking like they've about to drop the most fire single of the 1930s
Raidou Remastered is finally bringing the historical Shin Megami Tensei supernatural sleuth spinoff to PC this June