The Entertainment Software Association officially announced today that they are canceling E3 2023. ESA stated that it will call off both its physical and digital events.
Reports have circulated earlier this year that Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo would not attend the event and would launch their own digital events. Ubisoft later confirmed they are not attending E3 2023.
ESA sent an email announcement to its members concerning E3 cancellation. IGN further confirmed it along the way. In the email, it stated that E3 2023 “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.”
In another statement issued by the Global VP of Gaming at ReedPop Kyle Marsden-Kish, it was considering the industry and E3’s best interest that they decided to cancel the video game expo. This is despite their effort to pursue the event would happen.
The company continued as the interested companies had no playable demos. Another obstacle for the event is resourcing. ESA apologized to everyone who committed to attending the event and showed their grievance as they could not provide the experience they hope for. ReedPop, the event organizer, and ESA promised to work together for “future E3 events.”
Big video game companies such as Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, and Ubisoft already withdrew their attendance in E3 2023. Including to the fold are Tencent and Sega, announcing their withdrawal at the video game expo.
E3 2023 is supposed to be held on June 13 to 16 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. The last in-person E3 happened in 2019. E3 2020 faced cancellation due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Since then, video game companies have held their own digital events.
