Geoff Keighley States That He Didn't Kill E3 With Summer Game Fest

Geoff Keighley has claimed that Summer Game Fest and himself had nothing to do with the death of E3. 

On the VGC Podcast, Keighley was asked whether he minds the referrals to him as the 'E3 Killer' online. Keighley replied, stating:

"I think E3 sort of killed itself in a way. I understand why people say SGF killed E3, but I think if anything, we created Summer Game Fest, and I built Summer Game Fest because I saw the wheels falling off the wagon of E3. As someone who loves that time of year... for two decades, E3 was part of my life since I was a 15-year-old kid. From the first E3 in 1995, I went to every show. I loved it and it defined my summer. 

It was so exciting to me, and it was heartbreaking to see that start to fall apart. I think they had a relevancy problem, and then they also had a participation problem over the final years."

Keighley has been accused of celebrating the death of E3 and using it as a way to bolster his own shows, along with a general accusal of gentrifying the industry. Keighley denies however that the death of E3 can be traced back to companies choosing to present their games at Summer Game Fest:

"I get the sentiment around it. It was sad to me that we had to decide to go off and build something new, but we did that all in partnership with the publishers, and our list of partners for Summer Game Fest did not change at all with the cancellation of E3 this year."