Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony will not attend E3 2023

After several years of not taking place or being held exclusively online, E3 2023 promises to be the grand return of the world’s most important video game trade show. Current and references in the field since the end of the last century (its first edition dates back to 1995 and was the platform Sony chose to introduce the first PlayStation), year after year brings together the most relevant in the industry: developers, distributors, media, etc., in a meeting that is considered essential for every professional in the industry, as well as a source of great announcements and improvements for fans.

Although it has faced some problems since the end of the last decade, such as increasing competition, problems with Sony and more, it was in 2020, with the arrival of the pandemic and the cancellation of that year, that the situation started to deteriorate. get complicated. A rather irregular communication policy, the cancellation of the 2022 event, which some participants learned about from the press, and the complicated situation both economically and on the market itself, caused that many people are wondering what will happen to this year’s edition.

It was last September when the organizer of the event, the Entertainment Software Association, finally confirmed that we will have E2 2023 in person and online, like almost every year in Los Angeles, between June 13 and 16, although some events associated with it they start a little earlier, at 11. Many of us expected the sector’s benchmark event to return in style.

However, and from what we can read on IGN, it seems that the meeting will be much more lackluster than we might expect, as Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony will not attend E3 2023. For the first time in history, none of the three main console manufacturers on the market, Xbox, Switch and PlayStation, will be present at the fair, which has historically been the framework chosen by their manufacturers to present their new games. generation of consoles.

Sony was already known, or at least suspected, as the Japanese technology company and the event organizers broke their relationship before the pandemic, so something like this was to be expected. In Nintendo’s case, it seems to be responding to reality there will only be one really big release this year, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. So the tech company probably thinks there’s no point in being at the trade show with so little to say.

More surprising is that MicrosoftJust last week, Phil Spencer, the head of Microsoft’s gaming division, talked about his plans for E3 2023, saying that his own event to introduce the news will coincide with the trade show. Still, Xbox isn’t going to be at the fair, it’s quite a surprise and no doubt a blow to the organizers of the fair and to its visitors.