E3 2023 and Beyond Cancelled

[Moonface]

Nintendo Confirms it Won't be at E3 2023
Nintendo has confirmed it will not be at E3 2023, as reported by Venture Beat. They will not be participating with any form of presentation specifically for the event, nor will they have any show floor presence either.

We approach our involvement in any event on a case-by-case basis and are always considering various ways to engage with our fans. Since this year’s E3 show didn’t fit into our plans, we have made the decision to not participate. However, we have been and continue to be a strong supporter of the ESA and E3.

With this, it confirms the earlier IGN rumour that none of the big three will be part of E3 2023, since Sony bowed out of E3's a few years ago and Microsoft have stated they will not have a presentation at E3.

That leaves the following presentations as the only ones that may or may not appear for E3 2023:

• Gearbox Software
  
• Square Enix
  
• PC Gaming Show
  
• Capcom
  
• Devolver Digital
  
• Limited Run Games
  

Currently, Ubisoft are the only company confirmed to be appearing at E3 2023.

[Moonface]

Xbox Games Showcase Confirmed for June 11
Microsoft has confirmed that their Xbox Games Showcase will be held on June 11, followed by a dedicated Starfield presentation after that event:

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It's not part of E3 2023, but I feel this thread will probably end up being the hub to discuss anything that would fall into the traditional "E3 season" and if not I can always split this out later to somewhere else. I wonder if Bethesda isn't going to have a big presence this year since this hasn't been labelled an Xbox + Bethesda Games Showcase like it was in prior years.

I haven't got any expectation for the presentation except for wanting Microsoft to actually come out with some things for Xbox in 2023/2024 that aren't done mostly by third parties. Their 2022 show only had one game from a first party Xbox studio that wasn't Bethesda, and I'd like to think that more developers within Xbox Studios have something coming together that can be released within the 365 day window following this presentation, assuming that it takes on that same format as last years did.

If Silksong has no news before this show, it's absolutely being released on the day of the show because it will take place on Day 364/365 since last years show which made a point of saying everything shown will release within 365 days.

[Dragon Lord]

I can't wait to see how much of a bug riddled mess Starfield is going to be, and having to watch the PC modding crowd save yet another Bethesda game from being a complete train wreck, while console players are just left to suffer with the endless ocean of bugs and game/quest breaking glitches.

The fact that people can still get excited for Bethesda games despite the extremely consistent track record of painfully sub-par performance on their games, and their lack of giving two shits about it, really baffles me.

Might be a game I pick up when it's on sale for like $5, but can't see it being worth much more than that.

[Moonface]

I doubt a game on a scale like Bethesda's open-world games will ever release fully bug-free just because of the sheer number of systems at play in them, which aren't found in other open-world games like Horizon, Elden Ring, BotW, etc. That said, I find what was their biggest misgiving was how much they hyped up Fallout 4 and Fallout 76 and then didn't deliver on the vision they pitched. It doesn't matter how polished the game is, if it isn't delivering on what people thought it would deliver then the lack of bugs isn't going to smooth that over.

On the bright side, if Starfield comes out on Game Pass on release day it does mean a lot of people could check it without throwing down $70 for it so if it turns out to underdeliver it doesn't let the game just run off with as many sales as it would if it isn't on Game Pass. I imagine it could be harder for developers to release something that could come back to bite them if the majority of players come in through Game Pass because I doubt a single subscriber is going to bring a developer as much money compared to if that same player bought a physical copy, and having a lot of players share your game is bad without giving you as much as physical sales would is just going to further hurt the physical sales that you could be getting. I suspect it's harder to ignore problems when you can't just sit back, take a ton of money from physical sales and then stop giving a shit once you've got the money when subscriptions are involved.

[Moonface]

Ubisoft Has Pulled Out of E3 2023
Originally the only confirmed company to be attending this year's E3 event, Ubisoft has announced they will no longer be attending E3 2023 and instead plan to host their own event in June: https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news...f-e3-2023/

While we initially intended to have an official E3 presence, we’ve made the subsequent decision to move in a different direction, and will be holding a Ubisoft Forward Live event on 12th June in Los Angeles. We look forward to sharing more details with our players very soon.

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Yikes. There's only three months until E3 and there is now no company who has announced plans to attend the event, and I can see this development with Ubisoft making any of the other companies lean further towards not going if their minds weren't already made up on not attending. There also must be something that happened to make Ubisoft back out to do their own event beyond just deciding to follow suit with everyone else who said they're not going.

I really can't see what on Earth E3 can even do at this point to even have a show to put on. I'm not going to be shocked if the event gets cancelled outright and E3 just shuts up shop permanently.

[ShiraNoMai]

I can see them making the shift over into just being a public convention of sorts, much like PAX or even more niche/tailored like GDC. I can't see it actually being the hub it used to be anymore; no one wants to associate with it. It's best to just take the L and move onto better pastures with what you have.

[Moonface]

The thing is though no one is even bothering to showcase on the floor itself at this point so even if it became a PAX like event it would still be lacking in notable publishers attending. Then there's the fact that whatever would be happening at this event is going to be overshadowed by external ones going on at the same time, and if I was a game dev I'd rather my game be in a presentation of one of the big companies or Summer Game Fest rather than likely lost on the floor of whatever shell of an event E3 becomes. At least when PAX is going on that's all there is so all eyes are on it, but that's not the case with the June period.

[Mr EliteL]

Yeah E3 just needs to be cancelled and just left alone forever, had it's time already, stop trying to be something when anything it used to have is no longer there.

[Dragon Lord]

[Moonface]

I don't know if they were confirmed as going or not but Sega has announced they will not attend, and Devolver Digital are going to host their digital conference as part of the Summer Games Fest rather than E3 2023.

Apparently Konami are the only ones still holding a conference at E3 this year, which I find amusing since they've been a joke of a company for a few years now for anyone to bother getting excited about their announcements. It'll probably just be spitting on their IP's with stupid pachinko machines and stuff rather than giving people what they actually want.

[Moonface]

E3 2023 Has Been Cancelled
In the wake of multiple companies backing out or unwilling to attend the event, ESA and ReedPop have announced that E3 2023 has been cancelled due to the inability to "garner the sustained interest necessary to execute it in a way that would showcase the size, strength, and impact of our industry."

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.

The press release announcing this news closed with a statement that ReedPop and the ESA will continue to work together on "future E3 events", although an email from the ESA did not mention they would be undertaking the show again in future years.

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Well, there it is. I like how the quoted statement likes to act as if companies not having demos ready played any part in this event failing to materialize, when the real reason is simply publishers are not interested in using E3 as a platform any more. If publishers were having "resourcing challenges" to attend E3 then they wouldn't be hosting their own events or being part of Summer Game Fest, so that whole statement is just PR bullshit.

The smart thing to do for ESA and ReedPop is to abandon the idea of E3 altogether permanently. There's clearly nothing they can do to generate interest in the event from publishers when they've all found their own ways to do things in the absence of the event for the last few years already.

[ShiraNoMai]

Yeah, honestly, kill the brand off entirely. Repurpose the idea of it into a PAX-like, maybe even integrate with Summer Games Fest and just create the new era of "E3" that way.

[Monocle]

I'm glad this is happening. I loved e3 but with everyone doing their own thing and it being viewable with just a click at any time after presentation WITHOUT the annoying broadcasters is just way better imo

[Moonface]

Yeah, honestly, kill the brand off entirely. Repurpose the idea of it into a PAX-like, maybe even integrate with Summer Games Fest and just create the new era of "E3" that way.

I think the trouble with doing this is that PAX is already 3 months either side of June, and developers aren't beholden to having something for either of those events whereas anything at E3 time will have the challenge of removing the expectation that developers will be showing their new games there that are seen in the conferences.

SGF meanwhile tends to last an entire month so trying to put a show floor in that event would be tough timing wise. I expect a lot of publishers and developers would rather give hands on stuff earlier themselves behind closed doors or at their own events than wait weeks after their conference to stick it into a show floor integrated with SGF. Especially when that event also tends to do that free demo period on Steam and maybe other services which defeats the purpose of going to an event to play the game if that event takes place a week or more later, and anything that would be in person exclusive hands on stuff wouldn't be stuff publishers will wait on SGF to do.

[Moonface]

Not that it'll probably surprise anyone, but apparently recent documents from the Los Angeles Tourism Board state that E3 2024 and E3 2025 will not be held. Assuming that means the venue isn't even being reserved for that event or any similar one now then I guess ReedPop have no intentions to try and repurpose the event into something else and are just ditching the whole thing.