GamesIndustry.biz, which hosted E3 2023 before parent company ReedPop canceled it this week, has posted an editorial (opens in new tab) detailing what happened. According to Christopher Dring, the site's head of games B2B, the bottom line is that "the industry did not want this E3."

According to Dring, all major game companies except one were initially eager to attend E3 2023.

"The companies were talking about taking huge spaces," Dring wrote.

"The E3 team was looking at ways to expand the parking lot and use extra areas that hadn't been used in years.

Reidpop said in February that the event was "running at full capacity." However, even though E3 2023 is just a few months away, no contracts have been signed and "the atmosphere has changed," Dring writes. [He said that companies such as Ubisoft, Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo cited the following reasons for their withdrawal:

All are classic and common excuses, but the one about luxury is topical.

There are big gaming events this June as well, like Geoff Keighley's Summer Game Fest, and we can expect major publishers to have their own announcement live streams, there are Ubisoft and Xbox events, and our 2023 PC Gaming Show (opens in new tab) will take place as scheduled.

Dring said that ReedPop, which also organizes events such as PAX and New York Comic Con, "moved a little slower than anyone would have liked" and may have needed a different communication strategy, but Keeley immediately after news of the cancellation, Twitter (open in new tab) suggested that the problem was not just E3's inability to make the change.

"The pitch felt good anyway," Dring wrote. They were going to separate business from consumer (at least, as much as possible in that venue), make it more affordable, sort out the Wi-Fi, improve the food, and add more powerful digital components." But as it turned out, they didn't want that either."

It's hard to argue with that last statement: had the industry's biggest companies committed, E3 2023 would still be taking place. Even though ReedPop sponsored this year's E3, the event is still owned by the Entertainment Software Association. And this is not the first time E3 has dealt with withdrawal; shows adjacent to E3 but not actually at E3 have been around long before this year.

"In hindsight, perhaps E3 should have been something more radically different. It should have focused more on digital, the physical show would have focused squarely on the business side, and not relied on booths to bring people in." Some might argue, however, that it is almost an entirely different event.

Dring says he is disappointed that E3 will not be held this year, a view echoed by our own Rich Stanton, who praises the merits of E3 as the messy, face-to-face business, press, and marketing event it is today.

Rich believes there is no coming back from this, and at first glance, many seem to share the view that E3 is dead for good; Dring is not sure if we will see the three "e "s rise again, and E3 is an industry show, reiterated that the industry must want E3 back.

E3 has come back from the terrible events of 2007 and 2008, when it was scaled back. For now, see you in June for the 2023 Video Game Presentation Week.