Two more major game publishers are reportedly dropping out of this year’s E3, putting the event in even more potential jeopardy. The annual Electronic Entertainment Expo was once the blockbuster gaming event, providing players with exciting new looks at upcoming games, consoles, and other major developments from the world of video games. However, in recent years E3 has started to lose its luster, and in its place livestream presentations like Sony’s State of Play and Nintendo Direct have become the go-to outlet for big gaming announcements.
A sure sign of this changing trend is taking shape with this year’s E3, as neither Sony, Microsoft, nor Nintendo are presenting their first-party titles at the event. To make matters worse, Ubisoft recently announced that it would be forgoing E3 2023 as well, instead planning to host its own livestream event in June. Without the big three console makers showing off their first-party games or likely reveals like Assassin’s Creed Mirage and Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, things are starting to look grim for this year’s E3 - to the point where industry leaders like Geoff Keighley have made light of the dwindling number of companies participating in the show.
That number could be growing smaller still, as recent reports indicate that Sega and Tencent won’t be attending E3 2023. IGN recently reached out to several third-party publishers regarding their E3 plans, but so far many of them have yet to reply. Sega was the first to confirm its withdrawal, stating that it decided not to participate after much consideration, but “look forward to sharing more information on announced and unannounced projects in the future.” Tencent Games (known for PUBG Mobile and Tower of Fantasy) also revealed it won’t be at the show, despite participating in last year’s Play Days.
As mentioned before, the past few years have been a rocky time for E3. Following a decreased interest in previous E3 events, 2020’s planned expo was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and E3 2021 was reduced to a livestream-only format. E3 2022 was canceled as well, leaving other livestream events like Summer Games Fest to pick up the slack when it came to showcasing new video game announcements.
Organizer ReedPop is still committed to hosting this year’s E3 as an outlet for “AAA companies, in addition to indie darlings and tech and hardware firms,” but the growing number of publishers pulling out of the annual showcase is a troubling sign for E3 2023. Sega and Tencent now are forgoing this year’s event alongside Nintendo, Microsoft, Sony, and Ubisoft, and there is still plenty of time for other game companies to join this list ahead of E3 2023’s planned airdate on the week of Jun 13 at the Los Angeles Convention Center.
Source: IGN