The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) announced the cancellation of the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) 2023 earlier this week, citing a lack of support from the video game industry. E3 is one of the largest annual video game industry events, typically held in Los Angeles.

GamesIndustry.biz, a video game industry news website, published an editorial detailing some of the events leading up to the cancellation. According to the site's head of games B2B, Christopher Dring, all but one major game company had initially expressed enthusiasm about participating in E3 2023. Companies were reportedly talking about taking up huge spaces, and the E3 team was exploring ways to expand the event into the car park and unused areas.

ReedPop, the parent company of GamesIndustry.biz, was organizing E3 2023, and as recently as February, the company said the event was "full steam ahead." However, even with the event just a few months away, contracts hadn't been signed, and the "mood changed."

According to Dring, companies like Ubisoft, Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo gave a variety of reasons for pulling out, including that their games weren't ready, they didn't have code, they couldn't be seen as extravagant in a struggling economy, and the timing wasn't quite right.

Despite the cancellation of E3, there will still be major gaming events this June. Geoff Keighley's Summer Game Fest is one, and major publishers are expected to hold their own announcement livestreams. Additionally, ReedPop's 2023 PC Gaming Show and the multiplatform Future Games Show will still happen as planned.

In his editorial, Dring said that ReedPop may have needed a different communication strategy, but the problem wasn't just that E3 failed to change. He believed the pitch for E3 2023 was good and addressed concerns raised in previous years, such as separating business and consumer components and adding a stronger digital component.

Dring is disappointed that E3 won't happen this year, but he isn't sure if the event will ever return. He believes the industry's support is necessary for E3 to come back, and maybe it will return in a year when there's console hardware to announce.

E3 has dealt with exits from major companies in the past, and while some believe this is the end of E3, others believe there's a chance it could make a comeback.