(New York) The 2023 edition of the American video game trade show E3, one of the main world events for the industry, has been canceled, the organizers announced on Thursday, which left doubts hanging over future editions.
The event company ReedPop, responsible for the implementation of the show by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), indicated on the official E3 website that the cancellation concerned the entire program, in person. or online, originally scheduled for June 13-16.
ReedPop and the ESA “will reflect on the future of E3,” the two parties jointly said.
Launched in 1995 in Los Angeles (California), the Electronic Entertainment Expo brings together the main players in the video game industry every year.
E3 did not take place in 2020 due to the pandemic, before returning in fully virtual form the following year, then being put on hold again in 2022.
The organizers have not publicly communicated reasons for their decision.
But in an email sent by the ESA to its members and relayed by the specialized site IGN, the organization explained that the 2023 edition “did not arouse the necessary interest” to give life to a show “which would have realized the size, power and impact of our industry”.
For more than ten years, E3 has been considered to be on the decline, primarily because the giants of the sector are presenting their new products there less and less.
Major console manufacturers and game publishers increasingly prefer custom launches to these trade shows and often choose to organize their own events.
Xbox, Sony, Nintendo, or even Ubisoft had all chosen not to go to E3 this year, before the cancellation.
Other major events have nevertheless succeeded in returning to face-to-face after the pandemic, in particular Paris Games Week, which attracted 150,000 visitors at the beginning of November at Porte de Versailles, or the Tokyo Game Show, visited by nearly 140,000. people, in September 2022.
