After a report in January that Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony will skip this year’s trying to restore the broken E3Nintendo has confirmed that it will not be attending the show.
IN statement provided by VentureBeatNintendo explained: “We approach our involvement with any event on a case-by-case basis and are always looking at different ways to engage with our fans. Since this year’s E3 exhibition did not fit into our plans, we decided not to participate. However, we have been and continue to be strong supporters of ESA and E3.”
That’s probably not exactly surprising news, of course, given that Nintendo hasn’t held a major E3 conference in over a decade, preferring instead to use its own Nintendo Direct broadcasts to deliver its big news, and that the company was last present on the show floor at E3 in 2019.
As for Sony and Microsoft, neither company has yet confirmed their absence from this year’s E3, as claimed by January report by IGN. However, Sony hasn’t appeared at E3 since 2018, preferring instead to hold its own events and digital broadcasts around the same time, while Microsoft also increasingly prefers to reveal news on its own time.
This year’s E3 is being organized by Eurogamer parent company Reedpop, who released the following statement when first reported by IGN: “We’ve received a tremendous amount of interest and verbal commitments from many of the biggest companies in the industry, and when we’re ready to announce exhibitors, we’re confident that a line-up that will make the trip to Los Angeles worthwhile for both industry and consumers.”
While Nintendo may have pulled out of E3 2023, at least one major publisher has confirmed it will attend, and Ubisoft recently promised a “strong lineup” at E3 in June. Company canceled three unannounced games and earlier this year shelved multiplayer pirate games Skull and Bones again, leaving Assasin’s Creed Mirage and Avatar: Frontiers Of Pandora as the next big hits.