E3 2023 has been cancelled

The 2023 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) has been cancelled.

IGN reports that the Entertainment Software Association emailed its members today to let them know the show has been scrapped.

The email reportedly said that while E3 “remains a beloved event and brand”, the 2023 version “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”.

Following the report, Summer Game Fest organiser Geoff Keighley took to Twitter to reiterate that his show is still planned, and that it was originally created as a solution to what he thought was wrong with E3.

“E3 meant so much to me and to so many of you too,” Keighley wrote. “Four years ago, I realized that E3 wasn’t evolving as it needed to compete in a global, digital world. So we started building what’s next. See at Summer Game Fest [on] June 8.”

The future of E3 was thrown into question when Ubisoft announced on Monday that it had backtracked on plans to attend the revamped convention.

Last month the Assassin’s Creed publisher became the first major company to publicly commit to attending the show, which was due to take place in June at its traditional venue of the Los Angeles Convention Center.

However, in a statement issued to VGC, the company said it had now decided to “move in a different direction” and will instead be holding its own Ubisoft Forward Live event on June 12 in Los Angeles

Ubisoft’s announcement was followed the next day by similar statements from Sega and Tencent, who each confirmed that they wouldn’t be attending the show either.

“After careful consideration, we have decided not to participate in E3 2023 as an exhibitor,” Sonic publisher Sega told IGN. “We look forward to sharing more information on announced and unannounced projects in the future.”

A Tencent spokesperson then reportedly confirmed that its games publishing division Level Infinite won’t be attending E3.

Nintendo and Xbox had previously confirmed they would be skipping this year’s event, and PlayStation wasn’t expected to participate either.

E3 2023 – the flagship industry event’s first physical show in four years – had been taken over from the Entertainment Software Association by ReedPop, the media and events company behind PAX, EGX and Star Wars Celebration.

Under a revamped format, the first two days of E3 (June 13-14) were to be reserved exclusively for business. The third day (June 15) was to welcome both business and consumer visitors, while the final day (June 16) was to be dedicated to consumers.

In an update published earlier this month, ReedPop claimed that unnamed “AAA companies, in addition to indie darlings and tech and hardware firms” had committed to “making their return” to the LACC.