E3 2023 has been announced for June 13-16, with separate days (and halls) for the press and public.
After three years of uncertainty, E3 is set to return in 2023 for an in-person experience at the Los Angeles Convention Center. Shared digital events will precede the physical exhibition (starting on June 11), but the legendary event will run from Tuesday, June 13 to Friday, June 16.
While recent E3s have combined the business and consumer sides of the industry into a single event, E3 2023 will separate them into two quite distinct parts. Tuesday, June 13 through Thursday, June 15 will be called E3 Business Days and will focus on industry professionals and gaming media.
Meanwhile, Thursday, June 15th and Friday, June 16th are known as E3 Gamer Days and will allow consumers to “get up close and personal with the future of gaming and connect with developers, content creators, media personalities and more.” .” Gamer Days will be held in a separate hall from Business Days.
E3 2023 logo. (Image credit: ESA/ReedPop)
The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) is teaming up with ReedPop, the event production company behind New York Comic Con, PAX, Star Wars Celebration and more – clearly hoping to deliver a more focused and memorable E3 for businesses and fans alike.
Kyle Marsden-Kish, vice president of gaming at ReedPop, said, “Our vision is to reinvent the traditional E3 week, reconnect the industry, bring back that spark, and restore E3’s role as a truly magical global showcase event for game creators and consumers.”
Despite once being the most popular and adored annual event in gaming, E3 has been a point of controversy and instability for the past few years. At the 2019 event, the personal information of more than 2,000 participants was made available to the general public on the official ESA website, with the COVID-19 pandemic understandably shutting down the show since 2020.
Although it returned in 2021 with a virtual event, the lack of unity and poor showings left much to be desired, and the 2022 event was canceled altogether. Fortunately, it sounds like E3 2023 could be a return to form for the beloved expo that once meant so much to millions of fans around the world.
Billy Givens is a freelancer at IGN with over a decade of experience writing game, film, and tech content. His work has also been featured in GameSpot, USA Today, Digital Trends, Tom’s Guide, and more. You can find him ranting about video games and more on Twitter at @mektige.