Gaming News (E3 2023 Has Been Officially Canceled)

It’s 1860s London — the Industrial Revolution. It’s an era of great change, much for the better. The economy is growing, but so is the wealth gap. There’s class warfare and bare-knuckle brawling, harlots and hooligans. The fatcats flaunt their spoils, while the poor lads toil in their factories, many lucky to see their 20th birthday. It’s a city in need of change. Enter Jacob Frye. Exit lots of others.

Here’s a short film by F. Gary Gray that debuted at the Assassins’s Creed Syndicate Comic-Con panel today. The director of N.W.A biopic Straight Outta Compton helmed the pic, which is illustrated by veteran comics penciller and inker Pop Mhan.

UltimateMarvel wrote:That's a lot of money. I don't even feel sorry for EA. I can't remember the last good EA game I played.

Microsoft says it will bring more of its own Windows PC games to competing digital stores, including Steam, as part of an effort to bolster its PC gaming presence. “We believe you should have choice in where you buy your PC games,” Phil Spencer, executive vice president of gaming at Microsoft, said in an announcement on Thursday.

“In March, we announced that Halo: The Master Chief Collection will come to PC later this year, launching on Steam in addition to the Microsoft Store on Windows,” Spencer said. “We will continue to add to the more than 20 Xbox Game Studios titles on Steam, starting with Gears 5 and all Age of Empires I, II & III: Definitive Editions. We know millions of PC gamers trust Steam as a great source to buy PC games and we’ve heard the feedback that PC gamers would like choice. We also know that there are other stores on PC, and we are working to enable more choice in which store you can find our Xbox Game Studios titles in the future.”

While Microsoft has made efforts in recent years to bring new content, including original PC titles and Windows 10 versions of Xbox One titles, to PC gamers, it has done through primarily through its own Microsoft Store.

The company is also adding support for Win32 applications to Windows’ Microsoft Store.

“We recognize that Win32 is the app format that game developers love to use and gamers love to play, so we are excited to share that we will be enabling full support for native Win32 games to the Microsoft Store on Windows,” Spencer said. “This will unlock more options for developers and gamers alike, allowing for the customization and control they’ve come to expect from the open Windows gaming ecosystem.”

Microsoft promises more information at its Xbox E3 2019 briefing on Sunday, June 9.

UltimateMarvel wrote:Seeing Keanu was a nice surprise and the trailer was pretty good. Might have to play this one depending on the gameplay.

The Biggest Event In Gaming Has Officially Been Canceled

Gamers and investors alike were all holding out hope that the biggest showcase event in gaming would somehow make it, but it has been officially announced that E3 is being canceled. Based on the uncertainty of the pandemic and the consistent wavering of requirements for in-person events by health officials, both the digital and in-person events have been done away with. This heartbreaking news comes on the heels that E3’s in-person event had been canceled, though there was still some lingering hope that gamers and people could watch from home and see what new games would be coming to consoles soon. Sadly, everyone will have to wait for announcements via some other medium.

Canceling E3 makes total sense considering the myriad of game studios that have been showcasing their games through online video format. PlayStation has their “State of Play” showcases, Nintendo has their “Nintendo Direct” shows, and more developers have gone the way of showing off new titles in quick snippets that are usually posted on YouTube. While the world collectively waits for the pandemic to finally be over, it seems that health officials are consistently warning of massive gathers of people. E3 is certainly the biggest event in gaming, so canceling it makes total sense, despite the meaning that gamers won’t be able to see all the upcoming titles.

E3 began as a trade showcase for industry professionals way back in 1995, since then, the show has grown exponentially. From 2009 to 2015, the trade show grew even larger. Starting in 2016, E3 would welcome all who would want to experience the tradeshow level of gaming. The great thing was that studios would often bring demos of games that were highly anticipated, leaving gamers ecstatic that they would be demoing the game before anyone else had. Even EA, one of the biggest studios, devised their own event based on E3. EA Play was the usual outdoor event every year that was thrown on by the game studio, and it allowed people to demo new entries in Madden, FIFA, and many other titles offered by Electronic Arts. After the in-person event of E3 was announced to be canceled, EA also announced the cancelation of EA Play. Now it appears as if studios would rather turn to release their titles via online showcases for the time being.

E3 is only canceled for the year 2022, so depending on how the world looks by next year, it could be right back to where it belongs. IGN has also stated that the ESA aka Entertainment Software Association, which throws on the event, will be back in a big way for 2023. The uncertainty and health of everyone concerned is clearly the most important thing to worry about, so instead of adding to the glaring health corner issues, the ESA decided to completely cancel their event this year. While this is going to come as a major letdown for a lot of people, it is kind of the right thing to do. Hopefully, in lieu of E3 being canceled, there will be more game announcements done via YouTube this summer.

Almost a year after announcing its return, the Entertainment Software Association announced today to its members that this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), has been canceled, IGN can confirm.

Two sources have confirmed to IGN that the organization announced the cancellation via an email sent out to its members today. The email said that while E3 "remains a beloved event and brand" that the 2023 version "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."

The ESA concludes the email by reiterating its commitment to advocacy work. It does not mention undertaking the show again in future years.

Following IGN's report, the ESA issued the following public statement from Kyle Marsden-Kish, Global VP of Gaming, ReedPop:

   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. 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.

The press release adds that ReedPop and the ESA will continue to work together on "future E3 events."

The event was supposed to be held from June 13th through June 16th at the Los Angeles Convention Center and would have been the first in-person E3 event since 2019. The event was canceled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and while a digital version was held in 2021, the event was canceled again in 2022 in an effort to focus on a "revitalized showcase" that would set a new standard for hybrid industry events.

E3's return for this year was announced last June alongside the confirmation that E3 2022 had been canceled. The news comes as multiple big names in the industry, from Xbox, Nintendo, PlayStation, and more recently, Ubisoft announced that it would not be attending E3 in any capacity, with most opting to host its own digital showcases.

IGN has reached out to the ESA and ReedPOP for comment.