Nintendo has been a collaborator with E3 for almost two decades, according to the Washington Post. Since the late 1990s, Nintendo has released its Nintendo Directs and has held their own booths for display at E3. However, earlier today, IGN released an interview held with Nintendo, confirming that Nintendo is not going to participate in the upcoming E3 2023. In this IGN interview, Nintendo stated:
“We approach our involvement in any event on a case-by-case basis and are always considering various ways to engage with our fans. Since this year’s E3 show didn’t fit into our plans, we have made the decision to not participate. However, we have been and continue to be a strong supporter of the ESA and E3.”
This information was initially released through leaks late last month according to an earlier IGN article. These leaks seemingly came from credible sources, noting that Nintendo, along with Xbox and Sony, were not going to be participating in the upcoming E3. However these leaks, although taken as credible, were not hard confirmations of any changes in these companies’ affiliation with E3. Today’s message cleared up that information.
This separation does not mean that there is discontent from either side, with Nintendo providing a seemingly amicable response behind their reasoning for leaving E3. There simply seemed to be differences in how the upcoming information would be released, which caused the companies to go their separate ways.
The previous few years have also been a factor in why Nintendo has probably separated itself further from E3. There was no E3 during 2022 due to the pandemic according to The Verge, so the last time Nintendo released their Nintendo Direct for E3 was in 2021, as part of the virtual E3 presentation. Kotaku notes that E3 2020 was canceled as well due to Covid concerns, which means that the last Nintendo Direct for E3 that appeared in their live event was back in 2019 according to cnet. This means that there has been almost four years of separation from the last time Nintendo has been able to collaborate with E3 for a grand, in-person event. Nintendo has still been rolling out Nintendo Directs, even without the use of E3 over the last few years, so that might have also had an impact on their decision today. Only time will tell how this decision from Nintendo affects the future of E3 and Nintendo as a whole.