E3 has been officially canceled

Following announcements that some industry heavy hitters would be absent from the trade show, event organizer ReedPop and the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) have confirmed that the show has been canceled.

The details:

• Unsurprisingly, E3 has been officially canceled after numerous large companies, including Microsoft, Ubisoft, and Tencent, withdrew from the event in recent months. IGN broke the story, revealing that members of the ESA received an email announcing the cancellation, with the reason given as "simply not garnering the sustained interest necessary to execute it in a way that would showcase the size, strength, and impact of our industry." Following the report, ReedPop's Global VP of Gaming, Kyle Marsden-Kish, issued a public statement saying it was a "difficult decision," but the company had to do "what's right for the industry and what's right for E3.”
• Geoff Keighley's Summer Game Fest was announced for June 8 shortly after E3's post, and many of E3's non-attendees, such as Devolver Digital, are planning to appear at the show, which could potentially serve as its replacement going forward. Some companies, such as Ubisoft, Nintendo, PlayStation, and Xbox, have taken a different approach, and are instead hosting their own events. Some of these events will take place around the same time as E3’s original planned date, with Xbox hosting its summer showcase and Starfield hosting theirs back to back in June.
• Following a turbulent three years, E3 2023 was expected to be a return to the event running in its traditional format in Los Angeles. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was canceled for the first time since 1995 in 2020, with a livestreamed, online-only version of the show held in 2021. The show was then canceled entirely in 2022 due to "ongoing concerns of the COVID-19 pandemic," which included its virtual event. Although this year's E3 did not go as planned, the ESA and ReedPop stated in their press release that they will collaborate on "future E3 events," but there is no word on whether there will be a 2024 event or if its organizers will choose to wait it out for a bigger comeback.

Other recent gaming news of significance:

• Electronic Arts has announced that it will lay off 6% of its global workforce as part of a company-wide restructuring plan. By the time it is completed in September 2023, the plan is expected to cost between $170 million and $200 million in charges.
• Persona producer Kazuhisa Wada revealed that Atlus' art team is interested in incorporating AI illustrations into the pre-production workflow to generate ideas and concepts quicker than a human artist. Wada believes that when used in game development, the controversial technology could be "very useful in the future."
• The port of The Last of Us Part I has received widespread criticism for its current buggy state, with many players requesting refunds due to constant crashes and stutters. Naughty Dog has since acknowledged the problems and released a patch to resolve the game-breaking issues.