For the last couple of weeks, there have been a handful of reports that many publishers are planning to bow out from this year’s E3.
The most recent development of this saga is that even SEGA and Tencent seem to follow this path.
Each day, it feels like concern about the future of E3 is continuing to grow as a handful of big publishers have been confirmed to drop out from the event.
Just yesterday, Ubisoft, which is one of the E3’s OGs, confirmed to back down from the in-person expo despite firmly confirming that they would be attending the event.
As quoted directly from IGN:
“IGN reporters have spoken with numerous individuals in publishing and PR who typically have knowledge of event strategies, all of whom expressed concern about the status of this summer’s event. Many told us that they hadn’t heard of anyone else who was planning to attend for sure, and some said they felt there had been a significant lack of communication from the ESA and organizer ReedPop as to what exactly they should expect from the show.”
The interview also notes that compared to E3 2022, this year’s E3 is lagging behind schedule by a concerning amount as usually, they have already laid their plans around this time.
Who is attending E3 then?
So far, we are currently still in the dark about this as major publishers such as EA, Square Enix, Activision Blizzard, Epic Games, and Take-Two have yet to give any response as reported by IGN.
Those who replied unfortunately either confirmed that they will not attend or informed that they refused to leave any comment on that matter.
What’s next?
While the situation might seem to be so grim up to the point where the comment “there’s no possible way this show can happen” might sound closer to being true, there are still at least 2 months before the event actually happened and the best we can do now is to wait for further development.
For those who are wondering “when is E3?”, the event is planned to be held from Tuesday 13 June 2023 to Friday 16 June 2023.
