Update:
While E3 2023 is looking rather grim, fans have since chimed in about the lack of Devolver Digital. It’s clear that the E3 Parking Lot event will be greatly missed.
Original Story…
There is a growing concern that E3 2023 will be canceled, and we can’t blame them. Several companies have opted out of attending the event in favor of their own online showcases. Out of speculation, the costs are likely quite a bit cheaper going this route as well. While E3 used to be a necessity expo to ensure that the latest news regarding the video game industry reached the public, it’s since evolved to become more of a general public venture. Leading up to the pandemic, we also saw several companies take their leave from E3, and things only got worse when 2020 rolled around.
The pandemic caused the E3 expo to close its doors in 2020, and 2021 led to a virtual event. If you recall, last year, the event was also canceled, which led to some wondering if we would see E3 make a return. While initially, E3 2023 was supposed to be both a virtual and in-person event, it’s now being speculated online that E3 is going to be outright canceled again. This is due to several companies announcing their exit from E3 in favor of either a presentation during the Summer Game Fest event in 2023 or their own online stream showcase. Today, we can add Devolver Digital as another company that would be missing from E3 2023.
Devolver Digital announced on their Twitter account that they wouldn’t be at E3 but instead would have a presentation during the Summer Game Fest event. This comes after the recent announcement of three other companies taking their leave. If you heard, leading up to this week, Ubisoft has stated their interest in having an E3 presentation showcase but had just announced that they are canceling their presentation. So instead, what we’ll get from Ubisoft is their Ubisoft Forward presentation in June.
Additionally, it was just yesterday that both Sega and Tencent unveiled that they also will not be at E3 2023. This list is continuing to grow, and again it will be interesting to see if E3 2023 will actually still attempt to have an event this year or if they will opt to cancel the expo altogether. If it does happen, we know that at the moment, we won’t see Nintendo, Microsoft, Sony, Ubisoft, Sega, Tencent, and Devolver Digital making an appearance.