Ubisoft Pulls Out Of E3 After Having Previously Confirming They Would Be There "If It Happens"

In a move that may or may not surprise you – depending on your take on E3 as a whole – Ubisoft has decided the company will not be present at the Expo. According to a statement made to Video Games Chronicle, a representative of the company told them that in spite of initially planning to have a presence at the event, they’ve decided “to move in a different direction”. Instead, they’ll be holding their own Ubisoft Forward Live event on June 12 in Los Angeles.

For those wondering, E3 is scheduled to run June 11-16 in the Los Angeles Convention center. If you already made plans to be at E3 and were planning on seeing what Ubisoft is up to, it probably wouldn’t be that hard. It’s almost like they’re part of E3 without being part of E3.

Ubisoft was one of the first developers that signed on for this year’s event, but with so many of the larger companies – including Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo – opting out and doing their own thing, it’s not really shocking that other companies would do the same. Perhaps they initially signed on thinking the others would as well. That said, with the physical E3 event not occurring for a few years and game developers simply having other ways to reach an audience – and more specifically, an audience particular to them – it’s not surprising that Ubisoft might rethink their participation.