With E3 2023 announcing its event is canceled for the year, fans of E3 are wondering why this formerly massive event is no longer happening. The answer to that question revolves around a group of things, from the organizers’ introspection on the event as a whole to publicly announced departures from big companies formerly linked to E3.
According to IGN, an email sent by the runners of E3, the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), the event wouldn’t garner enough attention to warrant running it in the first place.
On top of that, a statement was issued from Kyle Marsden-Kish, the global VP of gaming at ReedPop.
“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,” Marsden-Kish said. “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.”
E3 2023 loses support from gaming companies
This email and statement, combined with the cancelation, comes after a lot of companies and organizations left E3 for, at least, their 2023 event. These groups include:
These groups include some of the biggest gaming companies existing right now, with the three biggest console creators all not coming to E3 in 2023.
Another interview came to light from gamesindustry.biz, which spoke with ESA president and CEO Stanley Pierre-Louis, who gave three reasons as to why E3 2023 was canceled.
“First, several companies have reported that the timeline for game development has been altered since the start of the COVID pandemic,” Pierre-Louis said. “Second, economic headwinds have caused several companies to reassess how they invest in large marketing events. And third, companies are starting to experiment with how to find the right balance between in-person events and digital marketing opportunities.”
Even with those reasons, other similar events have garnered popularity in recent years, making competition for viewership more prevalent. One of these events, the Summer Games Fest, is hosting its event both in-person and live online for 2023.
Even with all the news revolving E3 2023, the email said that ESA is still looking to keep E3 going in the future. If so, it will have to reconnect with these companies and get them back to the events that were so tied to them in the past.
