E3 has changed a lot over the years. What started out as a relatively formal, business-oriented get-together was soon transformed into one giant, hype-fuelled advert for the industry and its biggest players. Over the last decade or so, E3 has established itself as the most important annual event in gaming, but it's no secret that the convention's influence is gradually fading away.

The bottom line is that we now live in an age where the likes of Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo don't need E3. The latter has its Nintendo Directs to carry the hype, while Sony, with the PlayStation 5 on the horizon, saw fit to skip E3 2019 entirely. These companies are dancing to the beat of their own drum these days, and it's clearly an approach that has the Entertainment Software Association -- the organisation behind E3 -- scrambling to keep E3 relevant.

And so the ESA is looking to rebrand next year's event. Pitched as a "festival", E3 2020 (which is set to begin on the 9th June, 2020) will cater to "fans, media, and influencers", with a heavy emphasis on the latter. In other words, the organisation is prepared to lean on internet celebrities rather than console manufacturers and leading publishers. In other other words, it's starting to sound like E3 as we know it is basically dead and buried.

What's more, the ESA has reportedly approved of opening E3's doors to an additional 10,000 members of the public, boosting the total number of potential attendees to 25,000. Yet more evidence that E3 is shifting its focus away from the industry itself.

What do you make of all this? Is your interest in E3 slipping away by the second? Join a queue in the comments section below.