It’s official: the big N will not be in attendance at E3 this year, returning to Los Angeles as an in-person event from June 13 to 16.
The report of Nintendo not attending E3 first surfaced at the end of January, but official confirmation came from the company today, according to a new report by VentureBeat. The same reports also mentioned both Sony and Microsoft won’t be attending either.
“We approach our involvement in any event on a case-by-case basis and are always considering various ways to engage with our fans,” Nintendo said in a statement. “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.”
The last in-person E3 took place in 2019, with the following year’s event canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and it hasn’t been back since. The industry has since migrated to several live-streamed events, such as Summer Game Fest.
The big three publishers have all been running their own E3-like live stream events, such as Sony’s State of Play livestreams, which are used to debut new games, trailers for existing games, and make big announcements, much in the way that E3’s main stage shows did for so many years.
Although Nintendo won’t be on the floor at E3, it’s expected that the company will move forward with its own Nintendo Direct live streams as it has been doing in recent years.
