>>718407624 (OP)
E3 was an industry convention in the sense that companies wanted to show off the shit they were making and do consultations and shit. It just happened to be also good for being an advertising venue. Slowly it became about that secondary role for advertising over the former.
Over the late 2000s/early 2010s we had
>consolidation of the internet into a few social media and media platforms, e.g. twitter, youtube, Facebook, etc. and aggregates like reddit, basically Web 2.0
>the HD age meant major publisher video game development became less about multiple different projects and more 1-2 huge projects
It was uneconomical to run huge venues like E3 when you're not really doing that much vs the Nintendo Direct format if your primary goal is just advertising games to the consumer in the age of streaming. Hell nowadays most people just call them fucking Directs, e.g. the Call of Duty Direct. Anybody with a functional memory of the last ten years remembers that time when Sony was just showing off the same fucking games at every convention for like three years straight because they were taking so long to make.
Nobody wants to foot the bill for the infrastructure and floor space to show off 1-2 games. This is also why so much of the indie space has gravitated towards dedicated conventions like PAX.
The bigger publishers have zero reason to play ball. Why should Nintendo bother, for example? The entire internet goes nuts over Directs that they only imagine exists.
So Keighley basically monopolizes a space big enough that has the infrastructure and reach to make these presentations which means he can create a feedback loop of charging publishers/dev teams exorbitant prices to put their shit in his show since his only goal is cash. Stuff like Nintendo or Xbox's presentations are more selective.
tldr the bigger publishers don't care about doing big shows, smaller teams can't so he can parasitize off them, or he just throws himself at existing shows like Gamescom
