You might remember the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) as the company that ran E3, before handing off the responsibility of running it to ReedPop, who then failed to salvage the broken event that was E3, as the ESA left it.
Well the ESA is back, this time with another event that doesn’t exactly sound like its ‘E3 2.0,’ but it’s already got support from big publishers and developers across the industry, including: Amazon Games, Disney, EA, Epic Games, Microsoft, Nintendo of America, Sony Interactive Entertainment, Square Enix, Take-Two, Ubisoft and WB Games.
The event in question is called “iicon,” which stands for Interactive Innovation Conference (iicon). The ESA is calling it “a first-of-its-kind event designed to connect visionaries, thought leaders and innovators from across industries to harness the power of interactive entertainment.”
Its debut will come next year, between April 27-30, 2026, and it’ll be hosted at the Fontainebleau Resort in Las Vegas. There will be keynotes, workshops, and of course the whole thing will be a giant networking opportunity for those in the industry.
“iicon promises to bring together a broad spectrum of sectors that converge with interactive entertainment, including film, television and music, as well as sports, healthcare, education, finance and more.”
So far, there’s no mention of a showcase floor in the press release, or any kind of area where attendees could walk around to various booths and see what different studios and developers have to show off. But the release is clear on the fact that you cannot, as a general member of the public, buy a ticket. You can get into iicon “by invitation only.”
“For decades, video games have been at the forefront of technological and cultural innovation,” said the president and chief executive officer of the ESA, Stanley Pierre-Louis. “With iicon, we are creating a space for visionaries across industries to come together, connect, and reimagine what’s possible through interactive entertainment.”
Based on this press release, right now iicon doesn’t sound anything like E3. In fact it sounds like it’ll be closer to something like GDC. But with a more exclusive attendee list, and with how much the press release highlights “elite networking opportunities with executives,” probably less of a focus on the developers who are actually making the games we love, and more on a bunch of executives talking about what they think the future of interactive media is.
Whatever iicon turns out to be, we’ll have to wait until next year to really see it in action.
Source – [ESA]