Yea, I used to work for Gartner Events 20 years ago, and it was eye-popping to see the major tech companies drop million dollar contracts with us as soon as the event was announced. Apparently they thought the ROI for that was really good, but I can't see that nowadays.

Another thing about E3 was it was mostly aimed at the press and other tech companies. I think a lot of these exhibitors realized that a lot of gamers generally don't trust the press anymore for reviews and would rather see games first hand or through word of mouth.