E3 2023 has been cancelled
"We had to do what’s right for the industry and what’s right for E3.”
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This year’s E3 has been cancelled. The announcement was first made in an email from the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) to its members (originally reported by IGN), which was then later confirmed publicly.
E3 was initially scheduled to go ahead in June this year at the Los Angeles Convention Center. The cancellation of the event also includes any digital events, as well as physical.
In an official joint statement from the ESA and new event organisers for 2023, ReedPop, E3 “did not garner the sustained interest necessary to execute it in a way that would showcase the size, strength, and impact of our industry.”
Disclaimer: VG247 is owned by parent company, ReedPop, who were organising this year's E3 event.
Kyle Marsden-Kish, Global VP of Gaming for ReedPop, shared that, “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,” they conclude.
Unfortunately, over the past few weeks, a series of publishers announced they would not be attending the event. This includes Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft, with Ubisoft, Sega, and Tencent more recently announcing the companies would not be attending.
E3 2023 was set to be the first in-person E3 event in four years. After COVID took its toll globally, the event was cancelled in 2020, with a digital-only event being hosted online in 2021. The 2022 event was also cancelled, with it being announced in July 2022 that E3 would be opening its doors again, for in-person interactions and showcases, in 2023.
ReedPop and the ESA has said that it will, “continue to work together on future E3 events.”