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E3 2023 is canceled. The show was scheduled to run from June 13 through June 26.
E3 organizers have sent emails telling potential exhibitors that the show will not be moving forward, according to multiple sources speaking to IGN. That email reportedly says this year's event "simply did not garner the sustained interest necessary to execute it in a way that would showcase the size, strength, and impact of our industry."
ReedPop and the Electronic Software Association, the two groups organizing this year's E3, made the news official shortly after IGN's report. ReedPop gaming VP Kyle Marsden-Kish said "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."
The official word suggests "future E3 events" are still in the works between the two companies, however.
News on #E32023 from the source. pic.twitter.com/BK7TUlb8mZMarch 30, 2023
Speculation over E3's future has been going on for - well, decades now, honestly - but the past week has seen many in the industry skeptical of whether the 2023 show would happen at all. Reports earlier this week suggested that Sega and Tencent had no plans to attend the show and that other developers and publishers were growing increasingly uncertain of their plans to be at E3.
E3 has changed dramatically in the past half-decade. The show was historically intended for press and industry members to see games ahead of launch, but after the show opened to the public in 2017, it gradually started becoming more of a fan-focused event.
The ESA, the industry group which historically organized E3, canceled the show in 2020 and made it online-only in 2021 due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The show was fully canceled again in 2022, with organizers again blaming COVID. Last year, however, the ESA announced it would be working with ReedPop for future E3 events. ReedPop runs several other notable gaming events, including big successes like PAX.
Of course, if you weren't planning to attend E3 this year, you probably won't notice the difference. What would've been the E3 2023 schedule still has a lot of big press conferences for you to watch from home, including the Xbox Games Showcase and Ubisoft Forward. Geoff Keighley's Summer Game Fest looks to be the big event pulling everything together this year - though how many publishers commit to the SGF branding remains to be seen.
Don't worry, even with E3 canceled there are still going to be plenty of new games for 2023 and ways to learn the latest news about them.
