ESA says E3 will come back in 2023

The parent company of E3 says the event will return in 2023 and will be in person.
E3 logo on a blurry blackground

Organized by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), E3 used to be the main gaming event since the dawn of time. However, due to the continuing COVID-19 pandemic, E3 has been called off twice in the past three years. The good news is the expo is coming back in 2023 for sure, per ESA President and CEO Stan Pierre-Louis, who spoke to the Washington Post.

The CEO of ESA said covid has been the major factor for why they couldn’t conduct physical events for the past three years and confirmed that the expo will return next year with the following words:

“We’re excited about coming back in 2023 with both a digital and an in-person event. As much as we love these digital events, and as much as they reach people and we want that global reach, we also know that there’s a really strong desire for people to convene — to be able to connect in person and see each other and talk about what makes games great.”

The expo used to be the jewel of the video games industry alongside gamescom, but even pre-pandemic E3’s numbers were on a downward road and the hype around the event was visibly declining. ESA canceled the 2020 and 2022 events outright, but they tested the waters with a fully digital event back in 2021, however, something probably didn’t click since they decided to miss out this year completely. Luckily, Geoff Keighley’s Summer Game Fest was there to fill the gap left by E3, alongside other major showcases and publisher-specific digital events.

You heard it here folks, E3 is not dead and will return next year. It will be interesting to see how E3 will compete with other shows after being out of the game for some time.

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