E3 returns in June, returning to the Los Angeles Convention Center for the first time since 2019. The gaming industry's largest convention was canceled in 2020 and 2022 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, followed by a scaled-down online version in 2021. However, much has changed in the past three years, and now Ubisoft has joined Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo in confirming that the event will not take place.

A spokesperson for Ubisoft told VGC. 'Over the years, E3 has fostered unforgettable moments throughout the industry. We originally intended to be an official exhibitor at E3, but then made the decision to go in a different direction and host the Ubisoft Forward Live event in Los Angeles on June 12. We look forward to sharing more details with our players soon.

Perhaps it would not be surprising if not for the fact that Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot said last month that the publisher would be present during the conference call. Perhaps Guillemot meant it in an Electronic Arts sense: in 2019, EA held an EA Play showcase in the days leading up to E3 2019, but it was not part of the convention itself.

Not so good news for E3: five years ago it remained the biggest event on the industry calendar. The withdrawal of a major console platform holder is significant, but it does not bode well for its relevance if it continues to lose major third-party publishers like Ubisoft. In an era when most major publishers and platform holders have their own live streams and Summer Game Fest pulls all the big announcements, a three-day physical event feels out of step with the times.

Still, it will be interesting to see how E3 2023 turns out. Split into a "Business Day" and a "Public Day," it will prove worthwhile for studios other than UBI, EA, and Sony to attend. The dates are June 13-16.

Some argue that the absence of E3 over the past three years hasn't made much difference, but Rich Stanton is not one of them. He wrote last year, "It would be worse without E3, and the industry would seem a much more exciting place to be if we could somehow pull off the comeback promised for 2023."