E3 2023 will return as an in-person event from June 13 to June 16, 2023, as announced by ReedPop today.
The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) already revealed that E3 will return in 2023, but now we know exactly when the event will take place, along with several other key details. E3 will once again take place at the Los Angeles Convention Center after a four-year hiatus, but will incorporate separate days for industry professionals and general consumers.
Business Days will occur from June 13 to June 15, giving access to separate halls and spaces specifically only for industry professionals. This includes media, publishers, distributors, developers, and others working in the field. Then, from June 15 to June 16, the event will open to the general public, with “spectacular” booths and other attractions available to the public at large.
Just like previous E3 events, a number of digital showcases and events will occur prior to the convention itself, starting on June 11. It’s currently unclear what the lineup of showcases will entail, but expect multiple publishers and developers to participate.
The last in-person version of E3 occurred in 2019. Then, in 2020, it was canceled due to the pandemic, but returned as an all-digital event in 2021. The ESA canceled E3 2022, as publishers hosted their own digital events alongside Geoff Keighley’s Summer Game Fest this year.
Since the pandemic and the rise of digital showcases, the need for E3 has diminished. Many companies that used to host in-person key notes in front of live audiences shifted to an all-digital format in recent years, so it’ll be interesting to see which developers and publishers decide to participate in E3 2023 next year.
Acer’s Predator Atlas 8 finally has a US release date and price, several months after the company first showed off the handheld in May. The highlight is the Intel Arc G3 Extreme chip inside, which has been adopted by only a couple of other consoles besides the Atlas 8. This version will go on sale exclusively at Best Buy on November 1 for $1,299.99.
Acer originally said the Atlas 8 would arrive in North America in October, but left pricing open at the time. The launch came amid the ongoing DRAM crunch, which has made memory more expensive across the PC industry and complicated pricing for hardware makers.
Gaming laptops and I have a complicated relationship. One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it. I was a broke college kid, and that was the best I could afford. So trying out high-end gaming laptops is always fun. But ASUS' ROG Zephyrus G14 is a lot more than a laptop that can run AAA games. It is portable, so you're not lugging around a 2.5kg machine everywhere you go. It is built well, none of that plastic chassis, and can even function as a normal laptop outside of just gaming.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.