Nintendo confirms it won't be at this year's E3 following reports of a no-show
"We approach our involvement in any event on a case-by-case basis".
Following a report in January that Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony would all be skipping this year's efforts to revitalise a flagging E3, Nintendo has confirmed it won't be attending the show.
In a statement provided to VentureBeat, Nintendo explained, "We approach our involvement in any event on a case-by-case basis and are always considering various ways to engage with our fans. Since this year's E3 show didn’t fit into our plans, we have made the decision to not participate. However, we have been and continue to be a strong supporter of the ESA and E3."
It's perhaps not entirely surprising news, of course, given Nintendo hasn't held a major E3 conference for over a decade now, instead favouring its own Nintendo Direct broadcasts to convey its big news, and that the company last had a showfloor presence at E3 back in 2019.
As for Sony and Microsoft, neither company is yet to confirm their absence from this year's E3, as claimed in a January report by IGN. However, Sony hasn't been seen on the E3 showfloor since 2018, instead preferring to hold its own events and digital broadcasts around the same time, and Microsoft too has increasingly favoured revealing news on its own timeframe.
This year's E3 is being organised by Eurogamer parent company Reedpop, which released the following statement at the time of IGN's initial report: "We have received a tremendous amount of interest and verbal commitments from many of the biggest companies in the industry, and when we are ready to announce the exhibitors we are confident it will be a lineup that will make the trip to Los Angeles well worth it for the industry and consumers alike."
While Nintendo might have bowed out of E3 2023, at least one major publisher has confirmed it will be attending the show, with Ubisoft recently promising to bring "a "strong line-up" to E3 in June. The company cancelled three unannounced games and delayed its beleagured multiplayer pirate game Skull and Bones yet again earlier this year, leaving Assasin's Creed Mirage and Avatar: Frontiers Of Pandora as its next big hitters.