Shuttered Doors and Broken Promises

Even more companies bow out of E3 2023

Assassins’ Creed Developer Ubisoft announced in a recent statement that it would not be attending E3 later this year, despite having shared their intentions to attend as recently as February.

“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.”

Ubisoft was the first major company that had confirmed their attendance and them dropping out seems like a significant blow considering that Nintendo and Microsoft had already stated they would not be attending.

In the days following Ubisoft’s revision, two more companies publicly confirmed they would not be part of E3 2023. Sega, in response to questions from IGN, said “After careful consideration, we have decided not to participate in E3 2023 as an exhibitor. We look forward to sharing more information on announced and unannounced projects in the future.”

In previous years Devolver Digital wouldn’t be present on the show floor, but would setup in a nearby parking lot, has confirmed it wouldn’t be part of the show in any capacity this year.

E3 has not held a proper physical event since 2019, and many are questioning if it still has a place in the industry. There are still many developers who haven’t said they aren’t attending, but their silence is noticeable. Whatever the case for E3, with only 3 months until this year’s grand return, it won’t be long until we have a more concrete idea.

3DS and WiiU eShops have closed their doors for good.

Earlier this week Nintendo took the eshop offline for both the 3DS and WiiU consoles. It’s no longer possible to make any purchases from those online stores. This was announced over a year ago and gamers have had plenty of time to grab anything they still wanted.

If this is the first you’ve heard of it, and you still had plans to pick up something for your collection, I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news. While you cannot make new purchases, you are still able to redownload content you own and download software updates.

Changes to the National Classification Scheme could be on the Horizon.

The Albanese Government has proposed stronger measures to protect vulnerable individuals from gambling-related harm by introducing a mandatory minimum classification of R 18+ for games with simulated gambling and M for computer games with paid loot boxes. The proposal responds to the fact that current regulatory arrangements for classification are incompatible with digital media, leading to non-compliant online content.

The government plans to expand options for self-classification for the gaming industry in line with Australian classification guidelines, making it simpler and more cost-effective for the industry to classify their content. The proposed changes will help set the National Classification Scheme on the right path forward and ensure Australian families and consumers can benefit from trusted and reliable information to guide their media choices.

MultiVersus is going offline, will return 2024.

Player First Games has announced that the open beta for their 2022 fighting game Multiversus is coming to an end, and the game will shut down until early 2024. It’s being pulled from digital stores on April 4 and will go offline sometime in June. Multiversus released on the 19^th July 2022, which means it will have been live and playable for about a year before it goes offline.

Many players have voiced their frustration with the announcement, claiming the developer was not transparent with these plans. Especially upset are those who spent money on cosmetics or the founders pack and will not have access to these purchases, some costing more than a hundred dollars, until the game returns.

Upcoming Game Releases

April 4th –

• Meet Your Maker (PC, PS4, PS5, XBO, XSX/S)
• Road 96: Mile 0 (PC, PS4, PS5, XSX/S, XBO, Switch)

April 5^th –

• Moviehouse – The Film Studio Tycoon (PC)

April 6^th –

• Curse of the Sea Rats (PC, PS4, PS5, XSX/S, XBO, Switch)
• Everspace 2 – official launch (PC)
• Ravenswatch – Steam Early Access (PC)
• The Library Of Babel (PC)

And an extra shout out to 2 big names in gaming coming out with a movie this week!

Dungeons & Dragons on March 30^th and The Super Mario Bros Movie on April 5^th