The Entertainment Software Association (ESA), the owner of E3 game show, reiterated that they plan to restart this long held game event in 2023. This year's E3 game show was completely cancelled for the second time in three years. ESA said that the reason was "the continuous health risks surrounding covid-19 and its potential impact on the safety of exhibitors and participants".
ESA represents the commercial and public affairs needs of the U.S. video game industry. The association said in March that it planned to resume the exhibition in 2023. On Tuesday, President Stanley Pierre Louis reiterated this message in an interview with the Washington Post. "We are pleased to be able to return in 2023 in the form of digital and physical activities," he said
"Although we like these digital activities very much, and we hope that these activities can affect people around the world, we also know that people very much want to get together - to communicate face to face, see each other, and talk about the greatness of the game."
With the cancellation of E3 exhibition in 2022, Geoff Keighley's 2022 Summer Games Festival will fill this gap with "projects, activities and updates from more than 30 partners".
"I think the great thing about these experimental activities is that companies of all sizes are trying to find the most effective way to promote the products and content they want to share with consumers," Pierre Louis said.
"I think it is necessary to provide space for physical exhibitions, and I also think the impact of digitalization is very important. Combining the two, I think E3 game exhibition can provide a key element."
In fact, before the outbreak of the COVID-19, ESA was already under great pressure to reshape E3. Several major publishers, including EA, Sony and Activision, have abandoned this activity in recent years - this was before the cancellation of the E3 exhibition in 2020. After that, EA, Ubisoft and other companies have successfully held their own digital activities.
In a VGC report last year, former Nintendo owner Reggie fields - Amy said that he believed that ESA must act quickly if it wants to save this traditional game exhibition.
ESA has not announced the date of E3 2023.