The Electronics Entertainment Expo, also known as E3 2023, has officially been canceled. This week, after the announcement of even more companies pulling out of E3 2023 there was blood in the water with many publications predicting that E3 would be officially canceled within a week. Today IGN was able to receive confirmation that the event has indeed been canceled via an email sent to the members who were participating in E3.
It was shortly after the initial report, and IGN going down, that the ESA Global VP of Gaming, Kyle Marsden-Kish released an official statement:
This was a difficult decision because of all the effort we and our partners put toward making this event happen, but we had to do what’s right for the industry and what’s right for E3. We appreciate and understand that interested companies wouldn’t have playable demos ready and that resourcing challenges made being at E3 this summer an obstacle they couldn’t overcome. For those who did commit to E3 2023, we’re sorry we can’t put on the showcase you deserve and that you’ve come to expect from ReedPop’s event experiences.
At this time there's no clear reason for why E3 2023 would be canceled, with the largest three companies in gaming; Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo all having minimal presence and other companies such as Ubisoft recently revealing they too were not going to have a show floor presence it's uncertain whether it was the lack of 'eye candy' publishers that tipped the scales, or if those publishers saw the writing on the wall and decided to pull out pre-emptively.
Is this the end of E3?
While this confirms that E3 2023, which was originally meant to take place between June 11th and June 16th in the Los Angeles Convention Center, is certainly canceled there is hope in their official statement. ReedPop and the ESA commit to continuing to work together for E3 in the future.
E3's history in recent years has been rocky, already suffering from diminishing attendees before moving from being an industry event to an event for industry and fans. E3 2023 would have been the first in-person E3 since E3 2019 and the start of the COVID pandemic. While there were attempts during COVID to bring a form of E3 to life through a digital-only E3 in 2021 many lamented that it didn't quite have the same fanfare.
For fans of video games, there is still plenty to look forward to around the same timeframe including Geoff Keighley's Summer Games Fest, as well as the Xbox Games Showcase on June 11th, and a Devolver Games Showcase.
