Today, during its financial conference call for investors and analysts, Ubisoft's executives pledged that it'll attend E3 2023, as long as it happens.
Answering a direct question on whether the publisher would attend E3 2023, chief executive officer Yves Guillemot was quite clear in mentioning that the company isn't giving up its support for E3, albeit he did add a caveat.
"Yes. If E3 happens, we will be there and we will have a lot of things to show."
E3 2023 is currently scheduled to be hosted at the traditional Los Angeles Convention Center between June 13 and June 16, 2023. At the moment, the ESA, which organizes the show, has not provided any hint that it might be canceled. The show was canceled in 2020 and 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, while it was hosted exclusively online in 2021. Other major game shows like Tokyo Game Show and Gamescom have returned in-person respectively in Japan and Germany in 2022.
Among the "lot of things to show" it's quite likely that Ubisoft will showcase the "yet-to-be-announced large game" that Guillemot himself and CFO Frédérick Duguet have teased during the same conference call without providing further details.
Among the games in the pipeline for 2023, Ubisoft also has Assassin's Creed Mirage, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, and The Crew: Motorfest. Those don't yet have firm release dates, and unless they're released before E3, it's quite likely that they will be part of the company's lineup.
The company has recently announced a shift of focus on AAA games and live service games, alongside its mobile strategy, which the executives reiterated during the conference call. This led to the cancellation of several unannounced games on top of another delay of Skull and Bones. With today's announcement, if E3 does happen this year, we may get more clarity on Ubisoft's future.
