Nintendo & Microsoft Fully Opt Out of E3 2023
E3 2023 was set up as a major comeback for the struggling event. But another major video game company has pulled out of the event.
E3 used to be THE gaming event of the year. It started in 1995 and was created by the Entertainment Software Association (or ESA) as a place for developers, publishers, and manufacturers to talk about upcoming video game products with retailers and members of the press. It was a great way for retailers to show off and get people excited about new games and consoles. Many gamers over the years have come to see it as the “holy site” of gaming. Every major video game announcement came out of E3, and only a fraction of what was shown at the expo made it to the general public through press or word of mouth.
The Growth (and Downsizing) of E3
The thing is, it was just a business conference originally. If you watch E3 footage from Sony’s 1995 presentation, you will see they were just charts and graphs and other data with the occasional game news bombshell in the middle. Nothing like the big, sprawling crowds in Sony’s later presentations at E3. It wasn’t all that interesting to the public eye except for the big announcements.
Eventually, game companies realized they could broadcast E3 to generate excitement. The expo just kept getting bigger and bigger. Presentations were no longer about the sales data shareholders were interested in. Instead, it was about outdoing the competition with live music and big reveal announcements. In 2006, vendors threatened to pull out of the conference, claiming that the event brought in too many non-industry attendees rather than retailers and journalists – as a result, E3 was downsized. The ESA saw the downsize as a way to appease companies that were spending a ton of money to be there and keep E3 alive.
It was a tragic day for gamers
E3 in the Last Decade
E3 eventually went back to what was considered normal in 2009. The internet made it possible for companies to reach a wider audience than even TV networks. This is where things started to get tricky for the ESA’s convention. In 2013, Nintendo broke the mold by holding a digital presentation it could also stream online, making it the first of the big three companies to opt out of E3’s big presentations. Still, Nintendo still had a booth on the show floor, so nothing fully changed for a while.
In 2018, Devolver Digital revealed industry-wide exhaustion with the ESA and the growing expenses of participating in E3. If only giant companies could afford to show products at E3, what did that mean for the smaller studios? Shortly after, the convention suffered its most direct hit Sony announced it would no longer attend E3. Unlike Nintendo, Sony pulled out of E3 entirely, opting for other conventions and digital announcements.
According to Jason Schreier, Sony would no longer work with the ESA to attend E3. The convention has barely held itself together with both 2020 and 2022 being canceled due to COVID-19 complications. Not to mention the event’s accidentally doxxing the attendees in 2019. Yikes.
And Then There Were None
Microsoft has been the default winner of E3 ever since Nintendo Sony pared back. It seems like a no-brainer for the company to appear at E3 again to take advantage of the missing competition. Well, IGN has reported that not a single one of the big three gaming companies will be at E3 this year. Microsoft has opted out of both a presentation and a presence on the show floor at E3. Nintendo also decided to not have a physical presence at E3 for the first time. Xbox CEO Phil Spencer spoke with IGN last week and emphasized that he wants E3 to continue to be successful.
“E3 is just, to me, one of the seminal moments of gaming. I love the history of going down to LA, thousands of people there, getting to see great new things…getting to see people in the industry, the fan events that we’ve had. I definitely want that to continue,” “Xbox is on the board of the ESA, and I think a successful and healthy ESA is critical to what we’re trying to go do. So we place our showcase, like we always have done, at a time where hopefully it’s convenient for press and even consumers that are going to the E3 event, and that’s what we’re trying to do now. We will continue to work with ESA in terms of their plans. As I said, we’re on the board, and we want to make sure that we are doing everything we can to help make the E3 successful.”
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Sony and Nintendo so far have made no statement on the news. Neither has the ESA. Reedpop, who is partnering with the ESA for E3, issued this statement to IGN—
“E3 is such a significant event for the game industry and being entrusted with an important cultural touchstone is not a responsibility ReedPop takes lightly. Since ReedPop took on the contract to run E3 six months ago, we’ve worked diligently with ESA members based on their feedback to create a new type of E3 that supports their goals and needs.
This process has taken time due to the tremendous amount of stakeholders offering input, though we appreciate that we could have been more transparent to questions for which we were still finalizing the answers. We continue to work tirelessly to create a show that brings together the global gaming industry. We believe we’ve created a new format for the event that serves the needs of both the industry and its fans, and are committed to building and growing it in the coming years.
As we spent much of 2022 refining how E3 2023 would take shape, reflecting on the feedback we solicited, we did not send a single contract to an exhibitor until the start of this month. We have received a tremendous amount of interest and verbal commitments from many of the biggest companies in the industry, and when we are ready to announce the exhibitors we are confident it will be a lineup that will make the trip to Los Angeles well worth it for the industry and consumers alike.”
Reedpop has its work cut out for them to make this E3 memorable. Sony not showing up to E3 is pretty common and it’s not a shock to anyone that they have opted out once more. Nintendo deciding to not go is a huge deal and Microsoft deciding to opt out of both is a shock to many. If other companies like Ubisoft, EA, and more decide to follow suit, it will leave E3 without presenters. Reedpop could be reaching out to other studios to fill some empty space now.
E3 just hoping for no more surprises
E3 used to be a magical time when you saw the best of the best that gaming companies had to offer in crazier and crazier ways. Let us know in the comments if you still get excited by E3 or if you think its time has finally passed.
“How many times have you been watching an episode of South Park and thought ‘I’d like to be able to watch this on my television, while hooked into my mobile device, which is being controlled by my tablet device, which is hooked into my oven all while sitting in the refrigerator?” – Trey Parker at E3 2012
