E3 Returns Next Year With a New Format

Posted on by Nox

For the first time in three years, E3 has announced that the event will return in June 2023, albeit with some changes. The event is being organized by ReedPop, known for PAX, a gaming festival held in various parts of the US and Australia. The inclusion of ReedPop might be beneficial to E3, which has seen a drop in popularity and whose usefulness was coming into question even before the Covid pandemic further hampered it.

It will be interesting to see whether E3 will manage to re-capture some of its previous success. A consequence of the pandemic materialized in the form of big studios announcing their titles in online events, very often pre-recorded even if they are presented as ‘live’. It is certainly more cost-effective to put together a one hour video with trailers and awkward presenters than stand in front of a live audience, pretend to play a game on the stage, and bring over hundreds of high-end PCs, consoles and developers (airplane tickets aren’t free!) to an in-person event.

The Cold Hard Facts

Here’s what we know regarding how the new E3 will play out:

  • The event will be divided into two parts: Business Days and Gamer Days.
  • Business Days will run from June 13 to June 15 and access will be restricted to registered industry personnel (we are unsure if this also includes journalists).
  • Gamer Days will run from June 15 to June 16 and will represent the part of the even where attendees can play demos, interact with new hardware and talk with ‘media personalities’. There’s no clarification on whether ‘media personalities’ includes actual game developers, or only streamers, casters, journalists and the like.
  • Business Days and Gamer Days will be held in separate halls at the Los Angeles Convention Center, which could mean that, for regular folk, the event will simply be a way to try out upcoming games and hardware before they are released.

We’re still waiting on information regarding who will be attending (in terms of game studios), the schedule, the price of tickets and hotel & travel guides. This information will be released in the coming months.

How do you feel about E3? Do you reckon big studios like Microsoft and Sony will attend? Let us know in the comments below!