E3, the annual trade show of the video game industry where upcoming titles are unveiled and showcased, has been cancelled for 2023—and many observers suspect the event might finally be over for good.
The Entertainment Software Association and ReedPop, which had been hired to organize this year’s show, announced the cancellation late Thursday. The news came after a growing number of game publishers, including Microsoft, Nintendo, Ubisoft, and Tencent, announced they would not take part in E3 2023.
Both the physical and digital events were scrubbed. On the E3 Website, the two show organizers declined to address whether they would attempt another gathering next year, saying only “both parties will re-evaluate the future of E3.”
That’s a tremendous U-turn from the hyperbole of the show runners last July, when they claimed E3 2023 would set “a new benchmark for video game expos in 2023 and beyond.”
News on #E32023 from the source. Pic.twitter.com/BK7TUlb8mZ
— E3 (@E3) March 30, 2023
The last physical E3 was held in 2019, where attendees were able to get their first hands-on time with Google’s Stadia cloud-streaming service and Microsoft began discussing “Project Scarlett,” which would become the Xbox Series X. (Cyberpunk 2077 and Final Fantasy 7 Remake earned “best of show” honors.)
The ESA cancelled the show in 2020 due to the pandemic and held a digital version in 2021 that met with mixed reactions, at best. In 2022, it once again cancelled both the digital and in person show.
While E3 is dead, the industry is still likely to unveil upcoming games over the course of the summer. Ubisoft plans to host an event (likely online) around the same mid-June time frame E3 was scheduled for. Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo will likely hold their own showcases. And Summer Game Fest, hosted by Game Awards founder Geoff Keighley, will take place on June 8 in Los Angeles.
While many in the industry are mourning the apparent death of E3, the wheels for the show’s diminishing relevancy were set into motion a decade ago. In 2013, Nintendo broke tradition and announced it would not hold its traditional pre-show press conference, opting instead to talk directly to fans via a Webcast and offering demos of unreleased games at Best Buy stores around the country in conjunction with E3.
That initial Nintendo Direct proved to be an effective way to talk directly to customers, without the filter of the media. In the years since, all of the major console manufacturers have embraced it, as have many third-party publishers, such as EA and Ubisoft.
And even in 2013, some analysts were questioning whether the show could survive.
“With the acknowledgement that most of the growth, in a general sense, in gaming is coming outside of retail, E3 is going to take another tick down,” said John Taylor, who was with Arcadia Research Corp, said at the time. “I think we’re going to start hearing discussions about how important E3 is. … It may end up being too big of a venue.”