E3 isn't happening this year after all – what now?
April 2, 2023
In the last few days, well-known publishers have canceled their participation in this year's E3. Most recently, Sega and Tencent subsidiary Level Infinite issued a statement on the matter. On Thursday evening, the organizer of the E3 then officially announced that the game fair would not take place again.
News on #E32023 from the source. pic.twitter.com/BK7TUlb8mZ
— E3 (@E3) March 30, 2023
Kyle Marsden-Kish, Global VP of Gaming at ReedPop, told IGN , "[…] We understand that interested companies would not have had playable demos ready in time and that sourcing challenges have been an obstacle they have not been able to overcome. Furthermore, the cooperation with the ESA for " future E3 events" was confirmed. They didn't say whether this means that E3 will return next year, but it can be assumed that they will try again in June 2024 .
But what can we expect this year?
Even though E3 2023 has been cancelled, we can still look forward to a lot of announcements around June. On the one hand, there are currently numerous rumors about an upcoming big State of Play , in which Sony would like to announce news about Marvel's Spider-Man 2, among other things. In addition, the Summer Game Fest will start on June 8, 2023 with an opening show, as we already know from last year.
Video game summer isn't canceled. #SummerGameFest returns this June, featuring events, announcements and updates from more than 25 of the industry's leading publishers, platforms and developers.
Plus our spectacular showcase event, live Thursday, June 8 from @youtubetheater pic.twitter.com/uRAtq1DlcR
— Summer Game Fest (@summergamefest) March 31, 2023
Microsoft and Bethesda as well as Ubisoft have now announced that they will be present with their own shows in the E3 period, but that they will not be created in cooperation with E3. This is still planned. Accordingly, Microsoft together with Bethesda on June 11th. Holding a big show in 2023 , followed by the Ubisoft Forward on June 12, 2023 . Devolver Digital also seems to be planning a Devolver Direct . Times for the shows mentioned are not yet known.
There has not yet been an official statement from other organizers. However, it is likely that the PC Gaming Show will take place again on June 11, 2023 . Indie events like the Future Games Show or the Wholesome Games Direct are also likely to be streamed during this period.
Netflix could also announce new projects with their Geeked Week from June 5th to 9th this year, independently of E3. In recent years, these have already had some success with game adaptations such as Arcane , The Witcher or Cyberpunk .