Summer gaming events 2023: with E3 canceled, here’s what’s next

E3 has been canceled. Gaming’s big summer show was set to return in person in Los Angeles for the first time since 2019, but it’s been called off after huge gaming companies like Nintendo, Microsoft, and Ubisoft all said they wouldn’t be participating in the event.

E3 2023 was scheduled for June 13th through 16th with a mix of industry-focused days and days that would be open to the public. But in the lead-up to June, there had been some worrying signs that things might be rocky for E3’s revival.

Plans for E3 2024 have already been in doubt, but now a report from GamesIndustry.biz reveals that the ESA — the trade association behind the event — has dumped its organizer. The ESA has confirmed to The Verge it no longer plans to partner with PAX organizer ReedPop for future E3 events.

While the ESA was supposed to work with ReedPop for E3 this year, things started to fall apart when companies like Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo dropped out of the show. Now GamesIndustry.biz reports that the ESA and ReedPop have made the “mutual decision” to exit their multiyear deal.

Today, Panic put on its very first game publisher showcase. The showcase was short but very sweet, featuring some of the most interesting and innovative indie games coming to PlayStation, Xbox, PC, and Switch. Here are all the highlights, including a surprise announcement from the makers of Untitled Goose Game.

Arco comes from an international team of developers, artists, and storytellers. It’s a tactical action game that pits regular people against an all-powerful corporate gang. In the reveal trailer, the diverse landscapes exude so much ecological detail rendered in pixel graphics, and the combat seems like a real-time action game. Arco is due on Steam in 2024.

The Not-E3 summer of games is winding down, but it is not over yet. Annapurna Interactive was the latest publisher to put on its own showcase, debuting new games and sharing big updates for others. Here are the highlights from the presentation.

PlayStation’s best play-as-a-cat game is stray-ing to a new platform. Originally launched last year as a PC / PlayStation timed exclusive, Annapurna Interactive has announced that Stray, the cypberpunk cat-sim, is coming to Xbox on August 10th. Annapurna announced the move in the cutest way possible, with the game’s lead gato pawing an Xbox controller off a table, as its concerned owner stares helpless in the face of the cat’s reckless disregard. The only thing that could be more realistic is if the cat coughed up a hairball in the shape of Xbox’s iconic “X” symbol.

E3 is dead, and it’s not coming back for at least a few more years. According to a report from the Los Angeles City Tourism Commission, E3 won’t be back in LA in 2024 or 2025.

The news was contained in a footnote on a chart highlighting the city’s projected and actual number of hotel rooms booked for fiscal year 2022 and 2023.

As Summer Game Geoff, aka Keigh3, aka The Keighleys, aka Summer Game Fest 2023, winds down, there are a few more big developer presentations left, including today’s Ubisoft Forward 2023.

You can watch the livestream on Twitch or YouTube at 1PM ET / 10 AM PT / 6PM BST. Since we’re global here at The Verge, if we haven’t included your timezone, Ubisoft has got you covered, tweeting a bunch more global start times.

Microsoft just wrapped up its annual summer showcase for Xbox games, and it was a big one. Not only did Microsoft share tons of information about new titles coming to Xbox, but the company also showed a long look at Starfield, Bethesda’s long-awaited sci-fi RPG.

Here’s the biggest announcements from the show.

With the death of E3 nearly complete, Summer Game Fest has become the go-to summer event for gamers to get hyped about. But this year’s Summer Game Fest, while it featured games that included a wide range of genres and a great diversity of characters, did not feature a single woman onstage.

Throughout the almost two-hour showcase, host Geoff Keighley brought up a number of personalities to interview onstage. He had industry veteran Ed Boon up to talk about Mortal Kombat 1. Nic Cage made an appearance to talk more about his Dead by Daylight character. Bryan Intihar came on stage to reveal the release date for Marvel’s Spider-Man 2. But not once was a woman given that opportunity.

Summer Game Fest 2023 is nearly here. Geoff Keighley’s major summer gaming event takes place on Thursday, and this year, it might have some special significance. With E3 canceled, gaming companies wanting to show off their latest projects may turn to Summer Game Fest instead, which hopefully means that we’ll see some major news from the show.

There are already a few notable things to look forward to. CD Projekt Red has already said that Cyberpunk 2077’s upcoming expansion starring Idris Elba, titled Phantom Liberty, will be playable at the in-person Play Days portion of Summer Game Fest, so I’m guessing it will make an appearance during the live event. Keighley said on Twitter that we’ll see a “world premiere first look” of the new Fortnite season, “Wilds.” And the Summer Game Fest Twitter account has been teasing a “gameplay reveal” of Mortal Kombat 1.

Sony kicked off a summer of gaming events with a bang. The company’s PlayStation Showcase was more than an hour of rapid-fire announcements, surprises, and trailers — including a new piece of hardware. You can catch up on everything that happened right here in our storystream. But if you’re just looking for the biggest news of the day, this is the place.

Sony is making a handheld again, with the 8-inch Project Q. It’s designed for playing your PS5 games remotely and looks like a Nintendo Switch smashed with a DualSense controller. There was other hardware, too: wireless PlayStation earbuds are also in the works.

The summer of gaming events is starting a little early this year. Sony announced that it will be holding a PlayStation Showcase event on May 24th at 1PM PT. And it sounds like a big one: the stream will be more than an hour long and include games for both the PS5 and PS VR2. “Expect a glimpse at several new creations from PlayStation Studios, as well as spellbinding games from our third-party partners and indie creators,” the company says. It’ll stream on both YouTube and Twitch.

As for what to expect, Sony has a number of upcoming blockbusters, including the superhero games Spider-Man 2 and Wolverine, while I wouldn’t be surprised to see Death Stranding 2 make an appearance. The announcement also specifies “new IP,” so expect the unexpected as well.

Nintendo’s next big live event will take place in Seattle this September, and today, the company revealed dates and more details about Nintendo Live 2023. The event will run from September 1st through September 4th at the Seattle Convention Center and is intended to be an all-ages celebration of Nintendo’s games, as just one of many gaming companies planning events this summer in the shadow of E3 2023’s cancellation.

Nintendo Live 2023 is going to be a free event, and there are two ways to get tickets. You can register in a randomly selected drawing on Nintendo’s website at some point between May 31st and June 22nd, where you could get a one-day pass for a group of up to six people.

Meta is hosting another gaming showcase for its Quest VR headsets on June 1st, the company announced on Monday. The event will feature “over 40 minutes of content,” according to a blog post, including game announcements, first looks, updates, and a preshow and postshow.

The show will mark Meta’s third annual Quest Gaming Showcase. The 2022 event, which took place in April, featured some pretty cool games, including Resident Evil 4, Among Us VR, and a new add-on for Beat Saber. Here’s hoping Meta has some good things in store for the event, though some VR fans might still be unhappy that the company is shutting down the widely praised Echo VR.

Geoff Keighley’s putting on a show. I don’t mean E3 killing Summer Game Fest but an actual music concert celebrating 10 years of The Game Awards. The announcement doesn’t include a Coachella-style lineup of acts like a typical concert announcement would; rather, it’s a listing of game music you’ll hear during the performance.

There are 12 games that’ll be featured during the concert, including past game of the year winners like The Last of Us and a smattering of music from the most popular or most anticipated games to come, like Final Fantasy XVI and Starfield. You can also expect to hear the musical stylings of Hades, Elden Ring, and God of War, of course, but the concert also features music from gaming-adjacent media like the League of Legends show Arcane. But the set list isn’t all gas no breaks, unfortunately, featuring selections from the TERF (trans-exclusionary radical feminists) wizard game. Here’s the full list for your perusal.

Even without E3, the summer lineup of gaming livestreams continues to get packed. The latest company to announce an event is THQ Nordic, which will be airing a “digital showcase” on August 11th at 3PM ET. The company says the event will include news and brand-new announcements as well as details on upcoming games in its lineup such as Alone in the Dark, Outcast 2, and Trine 5. You’ll be able to check it out on YouTube, Twitch, and Steam.

E3 is officially off the table this year, with the annual summer showcase canceled and its future looking murky. But already, a number of events have popped up to fill in the gap. In addition to THQ Nordic’s newly announced event, there’s Summer Game Fest on June 8th, a Microsoft showcase (including a dedicated event for Starfield) on June 11th, and an Ubisoft keynote on June 12th. Even Nintendo is getting in on the action with an in-person event kicking off in September.

Nintendo Live is coming to the US. The game maker announced Tuesday that it will hold Nintendo Live 2023 in Seattle, Washington, this September.

Like its Live event this past fall in Japan, this year’s in-person event will feature gameplay from Nintendo games, live stage performances, game tournaments, Nintendo-themed activities, and more. There isn’t any information about when exactly the event will take place in September, but Nintendo says to stay tuned for more details.