Months ahead of its planned return to a physical event, several sources have confirmed that E3 will no longer be a part of E3 2023.
On March 30, IGN reported that E3 2023 has pulled out of E3 2023, canceling the event due to lack of “sustained interest”. This announcement comes after Sony, Nintendo, Microsoft, and Ubisoft confirmed that they would not hold presentations at the event this year.
Perhaps the showrunners, the Entertainment Software Association, saw the writing on the wall when even Ubisoft decided their latest Assassin’s Creed copy-paste job was too good for the function.
E3’s absence from this year’s E3 was confirmed in an email to its members and organizers, which states that this year’s event “simply did not garner the sustained interest necessary to execute it in a way that would showcase the size, strength, and impact of our industry.”
The email also states that E3 “remains a beloved event and brand,” though no official sources have confirmed this to be true.
This year’s event intended to herald the return of the annual conference to a physical format with in-person attendance. E3 was previously absent from E3 in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. They later held a digital-only presentation for E3 2021, but was absent once again during the following year in 2022. Though E3 previously confirmed to be attending E3 2023 on June 13th through June 16th at the Los Angeles Convention Center, this is no longer the case.
In lieu of E3 presentations, video game publishers will instead focus on hosting their own digital events via Directs and online conferences that literally anyone can watch at home for free while in their pajamas. As of this writing, there is no news on when the next Nintendo Direct, State of Play, or Microsoft conference will take place, but realistically, one will be announced a day or two before it actually happens.
So is this the end of E3? Who knows – but don’t forget that Dave’s Garage is always open.
