Image: ReedPop
New York Comic Con organiser ReedPop will run next year’s E3 event in a new shake-up.
Gaming Christmas is back. Renowned annual games convention E3 will officially return in the second week of June 2023 after its absence this year. However, this comes with a behind-the-scenes shake-up: the Entertanment Software Association (ESA), will now partner up with ReedPop to run E3 2023.
ReedPop is no stranger to big events like these. The event production company is behind many other events centered around pop culture, including PAX, New York Comic Con and the Star Wars Celebration. It’s unknown what, if anything, will change with its involvement, but a news release promises the usual E3 festivities in the Los Angeles Convention Center: “titanic AAA reveals, earth-shaking world premieres, and exclusive access to the future of video games.”
Unlike last year’s fully digital E3, E3 2023 will return as an in-person event for the first time since 2019. It will also feature digital games showcases that have now become the norm, and bring back publishers, developers, journalists, content creators, and more folks within the games industry as it has done in the past.
ReedPop’s president Lance Fensterman said on the announcement:
It is a tremendous honor and privilege for ReedPop to take on the responsibility of bringing E3 back in 2023. 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.
ReedPop’s global VP of gaming Kyle Marsden-Kish also hinted that a few changes might come to the event after public feedback, saing, “E3 2023 will be recognizably epic - a return to form that honors what’s always worked - while reshaping what didn’t and setting a new benchmark for video game expos in 2023 and beyond.”
Here’s the interesting thing: E3 will have competition next year. The Game Awards host Geoff Keighley has been running an online games ‘celebration’ called Summer Game Fest for three years running, with this year’s being the closest the event has come to swallowing E3 whole. Summer Game Fest had a big games showcase featuring trailers and information on upcoming games, and a physical event that saw press and influencers try out demos for games like Sonic Frontiers and Street Fighter 6. It was basically a scaled-down version of E3.
Right after E3 2023 was announced, Summer Game Fest took the opportunity to reaffirm that it will return in June 2023 too, “with a lineup of digital and in-person events to celebrate the future of video games.” Now that there are two big gaming events happening at the same time, one wonders: who will games publishers flock to with their new trailers, game demos and announcements? This is the stuff E3 is made of, but it’s never had to compete with another gaming event running at the exact same time before.
More information on E3 2023 will roll out later this year, including its confirmed exhibitors and event schedules. One thing’s for sure: June 2023 is going to be a very exciting time for gaming.