E3 2023 Has Been Cancelled

E3 has been canceled. For the first time since 2019, gaming's major summer event was scheduled to take place in person in Los Angeles, but it has been postponed after major gaming firms including Nintendo, Microsoft, and Ubisoft all announced they wouldn't be attending.

The dates for E3 2023 were June 13–16, with a combination of days devoted to the gaming industry and days that would be available to the general public. But there had been some concerning indications that the rebirth of E3 might be in trouble prior to June.

According to a report from IGN, ReedPop and the ESA, the event's organizers, were unable to secure enough backing from gaming publishers overall.

Also, it follows a week of news that made it crystal evident that support for the event was waning. One of the biggest companies associated with the revived event, Ubisoft, withdrew from E3 2023. The absence of Sega and Tencent from the show was swiftly confirmed. Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo had all already stated they will not be attending the event.


After IGN's story, Kyle Marsden-Kish, Global VP of Gaming at ReedPop, provided the ESA with the following public statement:

This was a difficult decision because of all the effort we and our partners put toward making this event happen, but we had to do what’s right for the industry and what’s right for E3. We appreciate and understand that interested companies wouldn’t have playable demos ready and that resourcing challenges made being at E3 this summer an obstacle they couldn’t overcome. For those who did commit to E3 2023, we’re sorry we can’t put on the showcase you deserve and that you’ve come to expect from ReedPop’s event experiences.

According to the press release, ReedPop and the ESA will keep collaborating on "future E3 events."

The Los Angeles Convention Center planned to host the event, which was to be the first E3 gathering in person since 2019, from June 13 through June 16. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the event was postponed in 2020. Although a digital version of the event was held in 2021, the event was again postponed in 2022 in order to concentrate on a "revitalized showcase" that would establish a new benchmark for hybrid industry gatherings.

E3's return for this year and the cancellation of E3 2022 were both announced in June. The announcement was released at the same time that other prominent names in the business, including Microsoft, Nintendo, PlayStation, and, most recently, Ubisoft, declared that they will not be participating in any way at E3.

Despite this, June is still expected to be a busy month for gaming news. According to IGN, the in-person Play Days component of Geoff Keighley's Summer Game Fest will return this year on June 8. On June 11, Microsoft will hold both its annual Xbox showcase and its Starfield-focused event. The next day, on June 12, Ubisoft will host Ubisoft Forward Live in person.