E3 2023 Canceled: “I’m sorry, we genuinely tried.”

The Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) this year has been canceled, delaying the return of the major gaming event.

E3 2023 was scheduled for June 13th through 16th later this year, but an internal email from the Entertainment Software Association said that this year’s iteration of the expo “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.”

This was meant to be the first in-person E3 since 2019. Over the course of the pandemic, the gaming expo was also canceled in 2020 and 2022, while a digital-only version of the event was held in 2021. This year’s abrupt scrubbing of the expo follows after several high-profile industry players such as Xbox, Nintendo, PlayStation, and Ubisoft announced that they will not be participating in E3 2023. 

E3 Business Development Director Guy “Yug” Blomberg tweeted out a brief apology while quote-tweeting the announcement.

I'm sorry. We genuinely tried. https://t.co/1zpwqk42jd

— Guy 'Yug' Blomberg (@YugSTAR) March 30, 2023

ReedPop Global VP of Gaming, Kyle Marsden-Kish, issued the following public statement about the cancelation: 

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. 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.

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