French video game company Ubisoft has announced that it will no longer attend E3 2023, the annual gaming trade show organized by the Entertainment Software Association. Instead, the company plans to hold its own Ubisoft Forward Live event on June 12 in Los Angeles, where it will showcase its upcoming game lineup. Ubisoft had previously committed to attending the revamped E3, which was due to take place in June at its traditional venue of the Los Angeles Convention Center. However, the company changed its mind and decided to “move in a different direction.”
It is not entirely clear why Ubisoft decided to pull out of E3 2023. It is possible that the company found it could successfully promote its game lineup without being attached to the event, or that it preferred to have its own event where it could control the message and presentation. However, the move raises questions about the relevance and viability of E3 2023, which has already been canceled twice in the past three years due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ubisoft’s decision to skip E3 2023 means that, with three months to go, no major company has been announced as officially attending. Nintendo and Xbox have already confirmed they will be skipping this year’s event, and it is unclear who will be attending. However, ReedPop, the media and events company behind PAX, EGX, and Star Wars Celebration, which has taken over E3 from the Entertainment Software Association, claimed that unnamed “AAA companies, in addition to indie darlings and tech and hardware firms” had committed to “making their return” to the event.
In recent years, Ubisoft has been a staunch supporter of E3, and CEO Yves Guillemot had expressed support for the 2023 plans. The company has historically used E3 as a platform to showcase its upcoming games, including popular franchises like Assassin’s Creed and Far Cry. Despite skipping E3 2023, Ubisoft is still working on a strong lineup of upcoming games, including Skull and Bones, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, and Tom Clancy’s The Division Heartland. The company is also reportedly gearing up to revive an unknown franchise around June.
Overall, Ubisoft’s decision to skip E3 2023 is a blow to the event, which was supposed to be the grand return of the annual gaming trade show after being canceled in 2020 and 2022 and being digital-only in 2021. The move highlights the challenges facing the event as it struggles to remain relevant and attract major companies in a rapidly changing gaming landscape.
