After the announcement that E3 will indeed be returning later this year in Summer 2023, many in the video game community were wondering how the organization of the event would commence. If this new report is any indication, then it’s not exactly what the organizers were hoping for. In an exclusive report made by IGN, and according to their multiple sources, the three single biggest entities in the entire industry will not have any sort of presence at the event. Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft are apparently skipping E3 this year, and if this turns out to be the case, then it is a major blow to what was supposed to be a huge return to the in-person event since the pandemic began.
Nintendo has always made themselves known during E3, even when they transitioned to the now popular Nintendo Direct instead of holding special live press conferences. They were even on the main show floor during the 2019 venue, the last in-person event before the pandemic, while Sony and Microsoft were not there in any form or capacity. Speaking of which, Sony’s absence here is the least surprising of the three, as the company has been increasingly more reliant on their own presentations, such as the State of Play for the PlayStation. As for Microsoft, they’ve been hit and miss when it comes to major floor presence and have recently been holding their own massive presentations in separate venues in the same area as E3.
Microsoft’s position is especially interesting as they’re not only on the board of the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), but they’ve also been hit the hardest in terms of layoffs due to a lackluster 2022. That being said, and despite Xbox CEO Phil Spencer’s optimism for the rest of the year, it’s not exactly a terrific start for the company. Due to their unique situation, there’s more than likely some sort of expectation that they’ll accommodate the ESA with an appearance of sorts. Hopefully they’ll find a way to bounce back in time for the E3 time frame, which is already quickly approaching.
E3 2023, which will run from Tuesday, June 13 until Friday, June 16, is scheduled to take place in the venue’s long running home of the Los Angeles Convention Center in Downtown Los Angeles. E3, which historically boasts a plethora of industry giants, studios, and well known developers, has dwindled somewhat in terms of popularity in the past few years. This was compounded by the aforementioned COVID-19 Pandemic in 2020 and forced any and all events to come to a sudden halt, E3 included.
The event returned in 2021 as a digital-only event, but was canceled yet again in 2022. During this, the standard Summer video game extravaganza hole was filled mainly by Geoff Keighly’s Summer Game Fest, which has slowly become very popular over the years. In fact, Keighly has already announced that his event will return again, on June 8, 2023, running slightly before the scheduled E3 dates. E3 has something to prove, and they’ll need some heavy hitters for this one. Thankfully they have with a new organizer partner in PAX’s Reedpop, which should be more than beneficial to the overall venture.