E3 is definitely coming back in June 2023, for real this time

E3 is coming back in the second week June 2023, and for real this time, with actual people expected to head to the LA Convention Center for the showcase of countless new and upcoming video games.

To make it happen, the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) is partnering with ReedPop, the production company behind PAX, New York Comic Con, Star Wars Celebration, and EGX and EGX Rezzed in the UK. ReedPop also owns Gamer Network, which runs a wide variety of gaming sites including Eurogamer, GamesIndustry.biz, Rock Paper Shotgun, Nintendo Life and lots more.

“It is a tremendous honor and privilege for ReedPop to take on the responsibility of bringing E3 back in 2023,” said Lance Fensterman, President of ReedPop. “With the support and endorsement of the ESA, we’re going to build a world class event to serve the global gaming industry in new and broader ways than we already do at ReedPop through our portfolio of world leading events and web sites.”

“We are thrilled to bring back E3 as an in-person event with ReedPop, a global leader in producing pop culture events.” continued Stanley Pierre-Louis, President and CEO of the ESA. “The past three years have confirmed that E3 convenes our industry like no other event. ReedPop brings world-class talent and a keen understanding of the video game industry, which will serve to enhance the E3 experience for years to come.”

This isn’t the first time that the ESA has tried to partner with another production company to produce a show, as they brought in iam8bit in early 2020 to help set up E3 2020. That partnership lasted all of five weeks, and with the rapid spread of COVID-19 in the first few months of the year, and a number of long-standing exhibitors backing out (most notably Sony, who were yet to reveal the PS5), the whole thing was cancelled just a few days later.

In its stead, Summer Game Fest was launched by Geoff Keighley and has run as a digital event for the last three years, even when E3 2021 made a digital comeback of its own. E3 2022 folded under its own weight, though, with a fresh COVID-19 variant in affecting the US in the early part of 2022 forcing them to go digital only, and eventually cancel it outright. And so Summer Game Fest stepped up once again, partnering with iam8bit to run a smaller boutique press-only physical event alongside the digital show.

Summer Game Fest is also going to return in June 2023, and it will be interesting to see if they run another physical event space, and if they can attract major publishers.

One key factor will be how the ESA and ReedPop choose to pitch E3 2023. After decades as a press and business-first convention, E3 officially opened the doors to the general public for the first time in 2017, looking to capture some of the audience and interest that had led to the rise of Gamescom, PAX and other public-oriented shows. It’s likely that E3 2023 will skew more heavily toward the general public, the kinds of events that ReedPop has specialised in since the early 2000s.

Source: press release