With E3 returning in a physical edition for the first time since 2020, it could well be without the three biggest players in the video game world.
Summary
[Mis à jour le 31 janvier 2023 à 15h25] This is news that hit the biggest video game fair in history hard. While 2023 was supposed to mark the return of the big fanfare of E3 at the Los Angeles Convention Center, after four episodes were canceled or strictly streamed online, Xbox, Sony and Nintendo seem to have snubbed it. Information that we owe to the editors of IGN, whose sources confirm a huge blow to the historical show. Because E3 2023 should, if this information is confirmed, do without the three biggest players in the world of video games.To start these few lines, you should know that this information has not been confirmed in any way by the three main stakeholders, nor by E3 itself, but it seems that Nintendo, Sony and Xbox have decided to avoid E3 2023. The three video game giants would rather organize their own events in the form of broadcast nights exclusively for their products. We already know that Xbox and Bethesda have their own event planned and that it will likely be included in Summer Game Fest 2023, a direct competitor to E3 2023.
Despite several assurances from Phil Spencer, head of Xbox, who said his company would do “everything to make E3 a success” as a member of the ESA (Entertainment Software Association) and a staunch supporter of the show, the green giant’s presence in the Los Angeles convention center seems compromised. It must be said that Microsoft recently quit en masse after debunking all the layoff rumors that were circulating on the net, and poses as a supporter of absolutely erroneous statements.
However, if this rumor is true, E3 could take a hit that will be hard to bounce back from. The event has been particularly affected by organizational problems during the coronavirus pandemic and has undergone many organizer changes. Add to that the rise of Summer Game Fest, which directly competes with the show for the exclusivity of certain revelations, and you have a commercial, organizational and competitive cocktail that can take over the legendary Three-E show.
E3 2023 is scheduled for June 13-16 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. The good news is that E3 has confirmed that it wants to work again with “publishers, developers, journalists, content creators, producers, buyers and licensees” to organize “next year’s” release. Therefore, we will see the return of this legendary conference to the Los Angeles Convention Center, although such an exhibition without Xbox, Nintendo or Sony would have a particularly strange taste.
At this point, we don’t yet know the exact program for E3 2023. While Sony, Xbox, and Nintendo appear to be pulling out of the summer video game season, there are still a number of exhibitors who should take advantage of the absence of the three giants that will take center stage at E3. We can think of Square Enix and its Final Fantasy 16 scheduled for this summer, and other exhibitors such as Ubisoft, Rockstar and Electronic Arts, although the latter traditionally prefers to host their own event.