E3 2023 cancelled due to lack of “sustained interest”

E3 2023 has been cancelled. The Entertainment Software Association announced the news to its members earlier today and confirmed it publicly shortly thereafter. The ESA’s email said that the event “simply did not garner the sustained interest necessary to execute it in a way that would showcase the size, strength, and impact of our industry.”

The ESA’s email was shared by several sources with IGN. A joint statement has since been released by the ESA and this year’s event organisers, ReedPop.

“This was a difficult decision because of all the effort we and our partners put toward making this event happen, but we had to do what’s right for the industry and what’s right for E3,” said Kyle Marsden-Kish, Global VP of Gaming of ReedPop. “We appreciate and understand that interested companies wouldn’t have playable demos ready and that resourcing challenges made being at E3 this summer an obstacle they couldn’t overcome. For those who did commit to E3 2023, we’re sorry we can’t put on the showcase you deserve and that you’ve come to expect from ReedPop’s event experiences.”

ReedPop, the operator of PAX and other pop culture events, are also the owner of Rock Paper Shotgun.

E3’s return was announced in July last year, but recent months have seen several companies confirm they wouldn’t attend, including the first-party console manufacturers. Ubisoft, who had initially announced their intention to appear, backed out last week, followed by Sega and Tencent in the days since.

This year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo was to be the first held in-person since 2019. The event was cancelled in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic and has only returned once since as a digital-only event held in 2021.