Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony all backed out of E3 2023 way earlier than everyone else. Now, it appears other companies are skipping the showcase as well.

Ubisoft is the latest company to favor hosting an independent showcase instead of joining the first E3 with a live audience in years.

Ubisoft confirmed this in a statement sent to VGC, saying:

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.

Ubisoft is now doing a Microsoft and holding its own showcase that overlaps with the typical E3 schedule.

This year, E3 2023 will run from June 11 through June 16, but the actual event itself won't start until June 13. The initial two days are specifically for "partnered digital events", which, we now know that Ubisoft isn't joining.

The list of companies that could join E3 2023 grows shorter by the month. With only a little over two months to go before the showcase, we're curious to find out who the "confirmed exhibitors" are going to be.

As for Ubisoft, we're expecting Ubisoft Forward Live to be just as big if not bigger than what Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot hinted at last month. The French publisher hasn't had the best luck in the past few years.

A combination of several factors, including bad reads of the market (NFTs), releasing subpar titles, and constant delays, have reportedly turned Ubisoft into the laughing stock of the gaming industry.

But, for all the jokes and memes, Ubisoft is still a premiere gaming company with several best-selling titles under its belt, including Assassin's Creed.

Perhaps this change in plans explains the leaked pre-orders of Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora.

In total, Ubisoft has a handful of games currently in development and nearing a release that it could show off at the June 12 Ubisoft Forward Live. The biggest ones are easily Assassin's Creed Mirage and Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora. Skull and Bones should've made this a trio but the ship has sailed on its hype (pun intended).

Other games that could be part of the lineup are XDefiant, The Crew Motorfest as well as Far Cry 7. It's possible we'll hear more about Assassin's Creed Red and other potentially unannounced Assassin's Creed projects at the event as well.