E3 2023 Will Return With Digital and In-Person Events, Says ESA

E3 2023 is scheduled to return “with both a digital and an in-person event,” according to ESA president and CEO Stan Pierre-Louis in an interview with The Washington Post. In the meantime, Geoff Keighley’s Summer Game Fest will be filling in the void of E3 2022’s absence, as it did two years ago when E3 2020 was canceled.

The ESA believes an in-person E3 2023 event will still happen

While the E3 2022 in-person event was officially canceled earlier this year in January and the digital event was subsequently canceled in March, Pierre-Louis is confident that E3 2023 is still in the cards. He says:

We’re excited about coming back in 2023 with both a digital and an in-person event. As much as we love these digital events, and as much as they reach people and we want that global reach, we also know that there’s a really strong desire for people to convene — to be able to connect in person and see each other and talk about what makes games great.

This reiterates an earlier statement from the ESA in March that acknowledges the “ongoing health risks surrounding COVID-19” as part of the reason for E3 2022’s cancellation. The parent company promised to devote all its “energy and resources to delivering a revitalized physical and digital E3 experience next summer.”

The return of E3 2023 is easier said than done, however. First-party publishers are relying on digital-only presentations with Nintendo Directs, Sony State of Plays, and Microsoft showcases, instead of spending a large part of their budget on flights, hotels, and demos at E3 in Los Angeles. In addition, many developers are also committed to appearing in this year’s Summer Game Fest (as shown in the embedded tweet above). Still, Pierre-Louis believes that an in-person E3 2023 event has its own advantages:

…I think there is a space for a physical show; I think there’s an importance of having digital reach. Combining those two, I think there is a critical element of what we think E3 can provide.

In other news, a Uncharted 4 developer reveals that the game almost had a stamina bar, and the upcoming Capcom showcase will reportedly feature Dragon’s Dogma and Resident Evil Re:Verse.

[Source: The Washington Post]