E3 2023 in-person event, dates, and ReedPop partnership announced

E3 will return to Los Angeles next June for show’s first in-person event since 2019, organizers for annual gaming convention announced Thursday. Organizers at the Entertainment Software Association say they’re getting help from the company that produces PAX, Star Wars Celebration, and other fan-forward events to make E3 2023 happen.

E3 2023 will be held at Los Angeles Convention Center during the second half of June. ReedPop will produce the event. ReedPop is a company that produces international events, such as PAX and EGX. They also organize comic book and pop-culture events, like New York Comic Con or C2E2, Star Wars Celebration, and New York Comic Con. The ESA and ReedPop say next year’s E3 will welcome publishers, developers, media, and buyers to the show, and will present digital showcases and “in-person consumer components.” Organizers are setting their expectations high for E3 2023, promising “titanic AAA reveals, earth-shaking world premieres, and exclusive access to the future of video games.”

Kyle Marsden-Kish, global VP of gaming at ReedPop, said in a statement that “E3 2023 will be recognizably epic — a return to form that honors what’s always worked — while reshaping what didn’t.”

E3 2023 will mark the ESA’s first-ever in-person conference since E3 2019. A 2020 event was planned to “shake things up” amid flagging attendance and industry interest in the show, but was canceled over health concerns related to the spread of COVID-19. E3 is a major event for companies that would typically attend, but E3 was cancelled due to health concerns. Geoff Keighley (an E3 partner) started Summer Game Fest as a digital event.

E3 was back in 2021. However, it was reinvented to be an online all-virtual event. Participation from companies such as Sega and Bandai Namco were included. Organizers planned a similar event for E3 2022, but the ESA ultimately canceled last year’s show.

ReedPop and ESA did not announce the exhibitors, but they said more details would be released in the next months. A “streamlined and secure media registration” for E3 2023 will begin in late 2022, organizers said in a news release.

E3 2023 will directly compete with Keighley’s Summer Game Fest next year. The Game Awards’ host said that Summer Game Fest, which will be held in June 2023 both as a digital event and an in-person one was coming back in June 2023.