E3, the main video game fair in the world, will not happen in 2023. The announcement was made by the organization of the event this Thursday (30).
The Electronic Entertainment Expo was scheduled to take place between June 13th and 16th, in person, in Los Angeles, in the United States. It is not yet known if there is a possibility of the event returning in 2024.
“ReedPop and the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) announce that both the digital and physical editions of E3 2023 are cancelled,” reads the statement posted on Twitter.
ReedPop and the ESA are the organizers of E3.
The announcement comes after Nintendo, Sony (owner of PlayStation) and Microsoft (owner of Xbox), have given up participating in the fair this year, focusing on holding online events to announce their new games. Among the studios that develop games, Ubisoft (from “Assassin’s Creed” and “Just Dance”) also reported withdrawing from participating in E3. Instead, it will stream online.
E3 2022 had already been canceled due to the Covid-19 pandemic. With that, game companies made online broadcasts to announce the games that would be released in the following months. In 2021 and 2020, the event was held digitally only.
The information was revealed by the website “IGN”, which confirmed with two sources the cancellation of the event in 2023. They would have received an email that said that, “although it is a beloved event and brand”, this year’s edition “did not generate the interest necessary to carry it out with the aim of showing the size, strength and impact of the games industry”.
The first E3 was held in 1995 and, since then, has become a reference as the moment that the electronic games industry gathered to find out which video games, games, peripherals and technologies would be released. At the companies’ stands, which were always highly decorated, it was possible to test the most anticipated titles of the time.
