Despite constant updates from new custodians of the
E3 brand and expo,
ReedPop, surrounding the 'full steam ahead' mantra of E3 definitely happening in 2023, the company overnight confirmed that it won't be taking place at all, including any all-digital form of it as well.
Major publishers and companies such as
Nintendo,
Sony and
Microsoft never committed to the event leaving a gaping hole in its potential for the traditional 'showcase', with many other big publishers also shy on jumping on in.
Having already been media approved for the event, I received an official email from the event organisers:
Hi Stephen,
Thank you for applying to attend E3 2023. We are writing to let you know that E3 2023 will not be taking place as scheduled.
The ESA and ReedPop recognize you may have made plans around the event, thank you for your support, and apologize for any inconvenience.
The email closed out with a plea to keep an eye on the event's
official site for any further updates, but across the industry there's a genuine acknowledgement of E3 essentially being dead.
Geoff Keighley's
Summer Game Fest will be taking place the week before E3 would have happened, and will have a small in-person footprint, but will largely remain digital while a number of the large companies will still be doing their own standalone media briefings. So E3 will live on in a detached sort of format, so its legacy around the month of June lives on in some form.
