After Sony, Xbox and Nintendo, it’s Bethesda’s turn to announce its absence from E3 2023. The publisher plans to organize its own event on June 12.
This is news that is hitting hard at the biggest video game trade show in history. While 2023 was supposed to mark the return of E3 to the Los Angeles Convention Center with great fanfare, after four editions canceled or strictly streamed online, it looks like it’s being snubbed by Xbox, Sony and Nintendo and now Bethesda. It should come as no surprise that the brand’s partner at X also misses the show after the rumors about Xbox’s absence, which in no way detracts from the immense snub inflicted on the big comeback of E3.
To begin these few lines, it should be noted that for Nintendo and Sony, this information has in no way been confirmed by the show, but it is increasingly doubtful that Nintendo, Sony and Xbox have decided to participate in the show. E3 2023. The three video game behemoths would have opted for the organization of their own events, in the form of broadcast evenings exclusively reserved for their products. This is already the case for Xbox and Bethesda who have planned their own event, the Ubisoft Forward Live.
Recently, despite a few words of reassurance from Phil Spencer, head of Xbox, saying that his company would do “everything to make E3 a success” as a member of the ESA (Entertainment Software Association) and loyal supporter of the show, the green giant’s presence at the Los Angeles Convention Center seemed compromised. It must be said that the Microsoft firm recently laid off en masse after denying all the rumors of layoffs that were circulating on the web, and poses as the champion of the ultimately erroneous assertions, which was confirmed once again after the announcement. of the Ubisoft Forward Live 2023 conference.
Because today, this event was announced via a statement made to VGC. Xbox and Bethesda said they want to “move in a different direction” and hold their own show on June 12. E3 is taking a hit that will be hard to recover from since Ubisoft Forward Live will also take place in Los Angeles in June, at the same time as the three-E show, and it means the absence of one of the three largest publishers in the world.
It must be said that the event suffered particularly from organizational problems during the coronavirus pandemic, and experienced many changes of organizers. Add to that the rise of the Summer Game Fest, which directly competes with E3 on the exclusivity of certain revelations, and you have a commercial, organizational and competitive cocktail that may be right for the legendary video game fair in 2024.
E3 2023 is scheduled for June 13-16 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. The good news is that E3 has confirmed that it wants to re-partner with “publishers, developers, journalists, content creators, manufacturers, buyers and license owners” to organize the edition of the ‘next year. We will therefore witness the return of this legendary conference to the Los Angeles Convention Center, although such an exhibition without Xbox, Nintendo or Sony would have a particularly strange taste.
As of now, the exact schedule for E3 2023 is not yet known. Although Sony, Xbox and Nintendo seem to be moving away from the show for their summer gaming season, there are still plenty of exhibitors who should take advantage of the absence of the three giants to take center stage at E3. We can think of Square Enix and its Final Fantasy 16 scheduled for this summer, and other exhibitors such as Ubisoft, Rockstar and Electronic Arts, although the latter traditionally prefers to organize its own event.
