Recent reports revealed that Xbox would have less of a presence at E3 2023, apparently aiming to focus on its own showcase happening around the same time as the event. While Microsoft hasn’t outright confirmed this yet, a new report suggests that the reason Xbox won’t make a big splash at E3 this year is due to a reduced marketing budget.
According to sources close to Video Games Chronicle, Xbox’s lack of a presence at E3 this year is due to cuts to its marketing budget. This comes in light of the recent mass layoffs at Microsoft where over 10,000 employees were terminated from the company. This has likely impacted Xbox’s marketing budget as well, which means that the company won’t have a big presence at E3 like it usually does every year.
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However, VGC goes on to state that there will still be a “significant presence” of big publishers at E3 2023, though stopped short of mentioning which companies will be in attendance. Fans speculate that we’ll see a lineup including Square Enix, Capcom, Bandai Namco, Devolver Digital and more notable publishers, but take that with a pinch of salt until we start getting confirmations closer to the time.
Xbox and Bethesda are set to host a dedicated showcase for the upcoming sci-fi RPG, Starfield, which remains Xbox’s biggest release of the year. The company recently confirmed a May release date for Arkane Studios’ open-world vampire action game, Redfall, as well as a late 2023 release window for Forza Motorsport.
With the current console generation entering full swing, Xbox will need to step up if it wants to continue competing in the space. PlayStation currently has a solid lineup of exclusives planned for the remainder of the year and beyond, while Nintendo is releasing its hugely anticipated Switch exclusive, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, this May with talks of new hardware arriving as soon as 2024.
Source: Video Games Chronicle