Games

E3 2023 is definitively cancelled, both the face-to-face and digital events

E3, which until a few years ago was the largest annual video game event, has announced the cancellation of this year’s fair. E3 2023 was scheduled to be held from June 13 to 16, as the fair’s return “to normal” after recent years, in which it was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, although it was also going to have a digital event. . Both events have been cancelled, since the fair has not been able to obtain sufficient support from the companies.

News on #E32023 from the source. pic.twitter.com/BK7TUlb8mZ E3 (@E3) March 30, 2023

This outcome was foreseeable after the fall of several publishers in recent days, such as Ubisoft and Sega, which were added to those of Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo. Rumors suggested that the cancellation would be made public this week, and it has been so: IGN revealed that the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) reported the news to its members and a few minutes later made it public.

“This has been a difficult decision for all the effort that our partners and we have put into making this event happen, but we must do what is right for the industry and for E3“, says the official statement in which it understands that the companies cannot have playable demos ready for the date or allocate resources for this fair. ESA and ReedPop assure that they will continue working together for “future E3 events.”

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Summer Game Fest trying to fill the E3 space

Geoff Keighley has not missed the opportunity to remember that his event Summer Game Fest will be held on June 8 and that you can follow streaming. This event was born in 2020 to replace E3 of that year and unify the emissions of different publishers. “E3 has meant a lot to me and to many of you,” Keighley said when the cancellation was made public. “Four years ago I realized that E3 was not evolving as needed to compete in a digital and global world. So we began to build the next step.”

Join together to celebrate what’s next in video games.@SummerGameFest returns live Thursday, June 8, streaming live everywhere. pic.twitter.com/oKOWr37Jb2 Geoff Keighley (@geoffkeighley) March 30, 2023

For the video game fan who regularly follows E3 from home, it does not seem that there will be excessive changes, since in the week From June 8 to 14, different events and online conferences will be held, such as the Xbox Games Showcase that will air on Sunday, June 11. Ubisoft has already announced its event for June 12, as well as Devolver Digital, and it is more than likely that it will take place on June 12. traditional nintendo direct of all the months of June.

The most important video game fair says its final goodbye?

First held in May 1995, E3 has been the reference fair in the sector for 25 years, where the biggest announcements have been made and which has left mythical moments for any video game fan. Last held in 2019, in 2020 it was scheduled as every year, but the COVID-19 pandemic caused it to be cancelled, returning with an erratic Digital E3 in 2021, which convinced almost no one. In 2022 it was not held either, and this year, which seemed to be the year of the return, the event has also been cancelled, which makes the future of E3 more than uncertain.