Despite organizers claiming weeks ago that they will have AAA game studios presence at this year’s E3, the only one who confirmed was UBisoft and today it is the same Ubisoft that announced that it will NO LONGER assist at E3.

Out of nowhere, Ubisoft has reached VGC to confirm that they are no longer bound to E3.

“E3 has fostered unforgettable moments across the industry throughout the years.

While we initially intended to have an official E3 presence, we’ve made the subsequent decision to move in a different direction, and will be holding a Ubisoft Forward Live event on 12th June in Los Angeles. We look forward to sharing more details with our players very soon.”

This is a huge blow for ReedPop, the event company that the Electronic Software Association outsourced to manage all the details on the return of the physical version of E3, 3 years after the pandemic ruined everything since 2020.

But honestly, E3’s problems are not exactly new and mainly thanks to the reach that can be achieved via social media, specially YouTube, ESA have been struggling on convincing gaming industry heavyweights to PAY for having a platform for important and main announcements.

As of the writing of this ReedPop has not reacted on this surprise from Ubisoft and haven’t announced the roster of exhibitors for this year’s E3 yet.

Update - 03/28/2023

Sega and Tencent respectively have confirmed to IGN that they will not have active exhibition either at this year's E3 which is just another blow for ReedPop first year organizing E3 on behalf of the ESA.

From Sega, the japanese studio is looking for it's own alternative to showcase future project, meanwhile Tencent only limited on saying that neither the company nor the  its games publishing division Level Infinite won’t be attending E3.

Words in the industry says that ReedPop's claims of having AAA gaming company onboard hard to confirm as nobody within the marketing community has heard how many are indeed having a presentation and both ESA and ReedPop silence is not helping matters on hopes that E3 this year will be a MUCH NEEDED success.

And that Sega and Tencent pulling out is a reflexion of the frustration of lack of communication from ReedPop and ESA.