It’s the end of the suspense. E3 2023 will not make its big physical comeback next June. Over the past 4 years, this is even the third time that this global event dedicated to video games has been canceled. To better understand the issues, let’s try to explain the reasons for this failure in 3 points. Does E3 still make sense?
The absence of large publishers
News on #E32023 from the source. pic.twitter.com/BK7TUlb8mZ
— E3 (@E3) March 30, 2023
This is probably the most obvious reason for the cancellation of this 2023 edition. Xbox, Nintendo, PlayStation, and Ubisoft this week, the biggest players in the video game industry announced that they would not participate in the E3. These big brands do not find it of great interest to be present on site.
While a simple stand costs around 500,000 dollars, one can imagine that the addition was salty for the studios. They now prefer to organize their own digital events to present their future games to the general public.
The pandemic has passed by
This is one reason for the current difficulties of E3. As the pandemic raged, major studios were forced to hold their conferences virtually. If the formula is not always perfect, they were still able to see that the gamers always responded.
Each conference of Sony, Nintendo, or Xbox gives rise to many comments on social networks. As for game sales, they broke records during the Covid crisis, and the absence of a physical event was therefore not at all penalizing.
Competition for E3
E3 is also the victim of the rise of events such as the Game Awards and the Summer Game Fest, created by journalist Geoff Keighley. The first is held in physical version but it is very widely followed online and is similar to a kind of Oscars of video games.
The second is particularly appreciated by studios because it takes place during the summer and highlights the various virtual events organized by the giants of the video game industry. While the players in the sector already have everything they need, the E3 in physical version therefore arrives a bit like a hair in the soup.
We will not allow ourselves to definitively condemn E3 and moreover, its organizers are trying to keep a little hope for the future. But it will be very difficult for the show to go up the slope.
You will have to completely reinvent yourself and better know how to juggle between physical and virtual events. It will also have to make sense: E3 could in particular turn more to the general public and influencers, if the studios decide to shun it.
