The ESA, the organization that unites the largest video game development companies with a presence in North America, has announced the cancellation of E3 2023. The trade show, known as a major industry event, will not have a physical or digital edition this year . This marks the fourth consecutive year that the event has been cancelled, following an attempt at a virtual E3 in 2021.
This is the fourth time they have had to cancel the physical edition, with the 2020 and 2021 editions canceled due to Covid-19 , and the last two years due to losing the large companies to whom they rented a large part of the space.
E3 2023 was losing strength day after day
For weeks now, it has been seeing how companies were announcing that they were not going to E3 2023, or at least it has been leaking: From Nintendo, through Ubisoft, Sega and Tencent. The bleeding of large companies that want to advertise with booths and stands in the convention center made it unfeasible. And it is that the E3 part of being an exhibition event in Los Angeles, where the rental of space is especially expensive.
Gamers looking for their annual dose of video game announcements and new trailers can expect many major brands to hold livestreams announcing new releases in June and throughout the rest of the summer. Over time, this has proven to be a good window for making announcements in anticipation of the holiday season and beyond. So far, Microsoft and Ubisoft have confirmed livestreams for those dates , with the Summer Games Fest also announced for June. Therefore, we won't be short of announcements and conferences via livestream this June or throughout the summer.
But those who won't be happy are the people who used this event to network, find distributors, and showcase their games to the press. Having all those people together was beneficial, and many developers found distributors through this trade show. E3 itself was born out of a desire for visibility in the face of the problems CES often posed for video games , and it was also a business convention.