While E3 is still dead, the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) has a new gaming conference on the way, as shared on Thursday. Titled the Interactive Innovation Conference (iicon), this gathering is being geared toward "visionaries, thought leaders and innovators" in order to "harness the power of interactive entertainment."
iicon is being held from April 27 through April 30 in 2026 at Fontainebleau Resort in Las Vegas, Nevada in the U.S. There's a long list of big names across the gaming industry that are already confirmed to attend, including Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo, Take-Two Interactive, Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, and more.
“At Xbox, our mission is to bring the joy of gaming to players anywhere they want, while creating opportunities for the amazing creators behind them,” said Sarah Bond, president of Xbox. “We appreciate the ESA establishing iicon as a platform to deepen connections among executives and thought leaders from within gaming, and from a wide range of partner industries. Together, we will collaborate, invent and create – and together we will all grow.”
Per the press release, attendees will be taking part in workshops and keynotes with "elite networking opportunities." The conference is not open for registration, and attendees will be selected on an invite-only basis.
E3 remains long gone
While the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) was originally put together as a show focused on developers, publishers, and retailers, it opened up more and more as time went on. Many gaming companies held press conferences in conjunction with the event, revealing details on upcoming games and hardware just as much for fans as for the rest of the industry.
In the twilight years of E3, more and more publishers pulled out, choosing instead to hold their own events at their own pace in digital-only showcases like PlayStation's State of Play. The weakening of E3 also gave rise to a slate of shows hosted by Geoff Keighley, host of the Game Awards. Keighley organized Summer Game Fest, a presentation with a limited industry gathering, as a quasi-replacement for E3.
It's interesting to see the ESA again putting its weight behind a conference, but at least for now, iicon is clearly not meant to replace E3. Instead, this is a networking opportunity for executives. Truthfully, I'm not sure that was really needed, given the existence of game development industry gatherings at GDC and D.I.C.E that already allow for networking, but I'm not the target audience.
