The second attempt to make the Electronic Entertainment Expo a live event has failed.

The 2023 edition of ReedPop’s annual trade event for the video game industry has been postponed. It was scheduled to take place from June 13 to 16 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. It would have attended the event this year for the first time since 2019. In an explanation, ReedPop’s global VP of gaming Kyle Marsden-Kish said the issue was “resourcing challenges.”

“This was a difficult decision because of all the effort we and our partners put toward making this event happen, but we had to do what’s right for the industry and what’s right for E3. We appreciate and understand that interested companies wouldn’t have playable demos ready and that resourcing challenges made being at E3 this summer an obstacle they couldn’t overcome,” Marsden-Kish said. “For those who did commit to E3 2023, we’re sorry we can’t put on the showcase you deserve and that you’ve come to expect from ReedPop’s event experiences.”

In an email to Entertainment Software Association members sent on Thursday, got by IGN and affirmed to the power source by two sources near the association, E3’s 2023 rendition “simply did not garner the sustained interest necessary to execute it in a way that would showcase the size, strength and impact of our industry.”

Major gaming companies like Nintendo, Microsoft, and Ubisoft had all previously confirmed that they would not be attending the event in the months prior to the announcement of its cancellation. Also, in February, ReedPop president Lance Fensterman told The Verge that the show was still “full speed ahead” with confirmed exhibitors after Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot said on an earnings call that it might not happen this year.

In the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, E3 was canceled in 2020. A virtual edition was held in 2021 before a planned in-person return in 2022. However, that edition was canceled both in person and online. In previous editions, E3 has attracted over 200 exhibitors and as many as 65,000 attendees.

Topics #Electronic Entertainment Expo