Ubisoft has decided not to attend E3 2023, joining a growing list of disinterested publishers

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The biggest yearly gaming convention is making its return in just three months, but with a rocky start. Just a month ago, Ubisoft had confirmed its attendance to E3 2023. Although the video game publisher was one of the biggest companies to confirm its appearance at E3 2023, Ubisoft has now decided not to attend.

Back in 2022, E3 had announced that it would skip a year. Holding no E3 in 2022 meant that it could focus everything on a better E3 for 2023. Not only did it cancel the live show, but also the livestreamed event that it relied upon during the COVID pandemic. The convention has been known to be slowly dwindling in popularity over the years since Sony and Microsoft’s departure. Now that Nintendo is also not attending, it seems as though Ubisoft has similar plans.

A few weeks ago, in February, Ubisoft confirmed that it would be a part of E3 2023 “if E3 happens”. Although, E3 already confirmed the dates for E3 2023 back in September of 2022. Now that a month has passed, Ubisoft has announced that it will no longer attend E3 2023. Instead, it will hold its own event during the same month.

Photo by Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images

In a statement to VGC, a spokesperson stated this, “While we initially intended to have an official E3 presence, we’ve made the subsequent decision to move in a different direction and will be holding a Ubisoft Forward Live event on 12th June in Los Angeles.” Ubisoft has held live-streamed events with the same name in the past, but never to a live audience. The publisher continued to explain that E3 created some amazing moments, but it decided to move in a new direction. 

Luckily, Ubisoft holding its own event gives it much more freedom with its announcements. Although Ubisoft decided