E3 2023 will be an in-person event at the Los Angeles Convention Centre in June, but Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo won’t be making an appearance at the annual trade show, according to a report from IGN.
The event is scheduled to occur from June 13th to 16th in person since it was forced online by the pandemic in 2019. Sony started skipping the E3 in 2019, preferring to organise its digital showcase or reveal some of its upcoming projects at Geoff Keighley’s Summer Game Fest. Keighley’s Summer Game Fest will return this year on June 8th as E3 grows smaller.
Nintendo’s biggest upcoming title, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of a Kingdom, comes out a month before E3 2023, which may be the reason it is skipping the convention. Microsoft will have a showcase this summer, and it will run around the same time as E3, according to gaming chief Phil Spencer who also promised support for the Entertainment Software Association (ESA).
“We place our showcase, like we always have done, at a time where hopefully it’s convenient for press and even consumers that are going to the E3 event, and that’s what we’re trying to do now,” Spencer said.
“We will continue to work with ESA in terms of their plans. We’re on the board [of the ESA] and we want to make sure that we are doing everything we can to help make E3 successful.”
In a statement by E3’s organiser ReedPop, also GamingIndustry.biz’s parent company, it said: “E3 is such a significant event for the game industry and being entrusted with an important cultural touchstone is not a responsibility ReedPop takes lightly. Since ReedPop took on the contract to run E3 six months ago, we’ve worked diligently with ESA members based on their feedback to create a new type of E3 that supports their goals and needs.
“This process has taken time due to the tremendous amount of stakeholders offering input, though we appreciate that we could have been more transparent to questions for which we were still finalizing the answers. We continue to work tirelessly to create a show that brings together the global gaming industry. We believe we’ve created a new format for the event that serves the needs of both the industry and its fans, and are committed to building and growing it in the coming years.”
