RIP E3 With Sony, Xbox and Nintendo Not Attending This Year

E3 has had it tough these last few years, with Covid and travel restrictions effectively killing the show’s in-person event and leaving it with just a few days of live streams and online content. Now with the first in-person show in nearly four years, I’m sure they were eager to get the ball rolling. Unfortunately, the big three, Sony, Xbox and Nintendo, will not be turning up.

IGN’s sources broke the news that the big three wouldn’t be attending and this is a huge blow for the show. Honestly, if this is the trend going forward, E3 is all but dead before it even starts. All three console makers have been hosting their own events as and when they need them. Xbox Showcase, Nintendo Direct and Sony’s State of Play are now regular events that give the spotlight to hardware, games, and other media as they see fit, so why bother with E3?!

So who will be at E3? Well, plenty I’m sure, with many publishers acting independently, I’m sure the halls will still be packed with people waiting in line to watch a trailer of some upcoming games. Honestly, thinking on it, the format of these shows is a bit dated isn’t it? It’s time for something new, whatever that may be.

“E3 is such a significant event for the game industry and being entrusted with an important cultural touchstone is not a responsibility ReedPop takes lightly. Since ReedPop took on the contract to run E3 six months ago, we’ve worked diligently with ESA members based on their feedback to create a new type of E3 that supports their goals and needs.

This process has taken time due to the tremendous amount of stakeholders offering input, though we appreciate that we could have been more transparent to questions for which we were still finalizing the answers. We continue to work tirelessly to create a show that brings together the global gaming industry. We believe we’ve created a new format for the event that serves the needs of both the industry and its fans, and are committed to building and growing it in the coming years.

As we spent much of 2022 refining how E3 2023 would take shape, reflecting on the feedback we solicited, we did not send a single contract to an exhibitor until the start of this month. We have received a tremendous amount of interest and verbal commitments from many of the biggest companies in the industry, and when we are ready to announce the exhibitors we are confident it will be a lineup that will make the trip to Los Angeles well worth it for the industry and consumers alike.” – ReedPop for IGN

Do you think this is the end of E3, or do you think it’s just the start of something new there? Let me know in the comments section below.