E3 was supposed to make a comeback this year with its first in-person event since 2019, but there’s reason to wonder if that will continue after other publishers like SEGA confirmed they won’t be attending.
Yesterday Ubisoft announced that it would be skipping E3. We also know that Nintendo, PlayStation and Xbox will not be involved. Regarding SEGA, the company said, “After careful consideration, we have decided not to participate in E3 2023 as an exhibitor. We look forward to sharing more information about announced and unannounced projects at coming.”
EA, Square Enix, Embracer Group, Activision Blizzard, Epic Games, Take-Two and Warner Bros. Games did not say whether or not they would be at E3. However, IGN reports “more publishers are planning to skip E3, but haven’t made an official announcement yet.”
Devolver Digital hasn’t been tied to E3, so it’s no surprise the company is continuing that tradition this year. However, it has confirmed plans to produce its annual Devolver Direct for June.
Rather than attending E3, some companies may intend to stick with Play Days, a media-only event hosted by Game Awards creator Geoff Keighley. Bandai Namco will be present at Play Days in June. Level Infinite won’t be at E3, but said it attended Play Days in 2022 and “found it an ideal experience to showcase our games to the media.”
Will E3 2023 end as originally planned? That remains to be seen. There seems to be a lot of concern coming from all sides: lack of communication and plans set by the ESA and organizer ReedPop, publishers and developers still struggling with the pandemic, and budgets being in limbo, and ReedPop feeling “a sense of betrayal”. “”. because the companies initially collaborated “to define exactly what they wanted from the release of E3 2023” only to then be reluctant.