Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo seem to skip E3 in 2023

Post-Covid comeback likely without the big three

E3, one of the biggest conventions for video games on the globe, will return in physical form this year after being forced to take a break for several years due to the global pandemic. In that time, publishers and developers have flocked to a digital showcase organized by Geoff Keighley’s The Game Awards team, or held their own digital events to inform gamers about their projects.

It seems like E3’s comeback from June 13 to 16, 2023, will have to go ahead without three of the biggest companies in the industry: According to IGN, Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo are looking to skip attending the event for various reasons.

Microsoft and Xbox will hold their own summer showcase and are looking to coordinate this with E3 to avoid overlap, but other than that there seemingly are no plans to engage with the event – despite proclaiming support for it in public.

Gamescom already returned in physical form in 2022, E3 looks to come back in 2023 / Laura Heimann via Unsplash

Sony, which already skipped the last physical convention in 2019 (and planned on not attending in 2020 as well) due to disagreements with E3’s umbrella organization Entertainment Software Association (ESA), doesn’t seem to plan on coming back any time soon.

That leaves Nintendo, which traditionally has been another friend to E3 in the past. However, IGN reports with corroboration from VGC, the company is also looking to skip the show in 2023. With the Switch getting on the older side, Nintendo may not have that many big projects in the pipeline to show off, making it hard to justify the expenses of attending.

With Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo probably being out of the picture, E3 2023 may not be the triumphant return fans of the convention had hoped for – it seems like this new beginning will be a bit more intimate in scale than anticipated.