E3 has officially confirmed the dates for next summer's gaming convention alongside more info for the event's long awaited in-person return. Over more than 25 years since the annual event was first held in 1995, E3 has become a staple of the summer season for gamers with plenty of major reveals and announcements. However, the expo was heavily impacted by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic with both 2020 and 2022's E3 shows being cancelled and 2021 being held as an online-only event. Now, E3 is gearing up for its grand return next year.

E3 officially revealed information about the convention's return Monday morning, announcing its collaboration with PAX manager ReedPop to help with the in-person event. E3 2023 will take place at the Los Angeles Convention Center from June 13 to June 16. The event will reportedly feature separate days for businesses and consumers with E3 reserving the first days of the convention for businesses. The change is reportedly to make it "easier for businesses to connect" with other attendees and conducting interviews with potential employees.

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The event was also confirmed to feature separate venues for the business and consumer sides of the event within the Los Angeles Convention Center. The event will feature a business-exclusive area that is planned to include quiet workspaces for businesses to meet with one another. E3 has also confirmed the first two days of the convention will be exclusive to businesses while June 15th and 16th will see the event opened up to consumers as well. E3 has yet to confirm any of its major attendees for next year's convention.

While the absence of E3 has been felt throughout the gaming world during the past three years, Geoff Keighley's Summer Game Fest has looked to pick up the slack. The 2022 edition of the gaming event saw presentations throughout June from many of the gaming industry's biggest names including Nintendo, Sony, and Sega. The event saw over 3.5 million concurrent viewers at its peak with a total of over 27 million livestreams and Keighley has confirmed Summer Game Fest will return in 2023.

E3's return to in-person events would be one of the biggest examples of events slowly returning to normalcy after the effects of the pandemic. This year has seen the return of major competitive in-person events for a variety of games including Pokemon and League of Legends. 2022 has also welcomed back in-person festivities for a variety of major gaming conventions including Tokyo Game Show's first in-person event since 2019. The return of E3 to a physical venue will look to be one of the gaming industry's biggest events of the year next June.

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Source: GamesIndustry.biz