E3, once the marquee event for the video game industry's giants to generate hype for upcoming titles, may have just gotten the final nail in its coffin after reports indicate that Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft are all skipping the expo's big 2023 return.

Yesterday evening, IGN reported that the "Big Three" of video games won't appear at E3's first physically held conference since 2019, in essence, confirming that the once-annual gaming mainstay appears to be a thing of the past.

IGN has heard from multiple knowledgeable sources that Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo won't be part of E3 2023 or have presence on the Los Angeles Convention Center show floor. https://t.co/bd3iVYOs26 pic.twitter.com/mOhbJefXPV

— IGN (@IGN) January 30, 2023

Following the report, many online began poking fun at the once-anticipated convention, sharing memes and reactions about what E3 2023 might look like.

E3 this year: pic.twitter.com/CtqJpxOpdX https://t.co/zx9bIOSOOq

— ❄️doodle❄️ (@doodletrash01) January 31, 2023

E3 this year https://t.co/mkj4PPRGs3 pic.twitter.com/ACZhiEw9ze

— BROONO ㊆ (@BROONOart) January 31, 2023

E3 looking at there event roster this year pic.twitter.com/YRm96aMtMo

— Arkham (@superbadxx) January 31, 2023

As an annual conference, E3 was hit particularly hard by COVID-19, as the initial wave and subsequent flareups forced the event to either cancel or go purely digital for three consecutive years. Nintendo and Sony were breaking away from E3 before the pandemic began, as Nintendo has begun making big reveals in its Nintendo Direct series and Sony had backed out of the 2019 expo due to legal issues. Microsoft seemed the most likely candidate to have a presence at E3 this year, and Xbox CEO Phil Spencer even voiced his support for the conference, but IGN's report indicates Microsoft won't have a booth on the show floor.

The news makes one wonder who would attend or stream the grand return of E3 at all, considering a huge swath of gamers plays on at least one of the Big Three's consoles. Nevertheless, organizers of E3 2023 remain optimistic, as a spokesperson told Kotaku:

We have received a tremendous amount of interest and verbal commitments from many of the biggest companies in the industry, and when we are ready to announce the exhibitors we are confident it will be a lineup that will make the trip to Los Angeles well worth it for the industry and consumers alike.

Whether that's true remains to be seen, but should E3 be truly dead, it marks the end of an annual event that always produced exciting announcements and memes, even if direct company-to-consumer announcement streams have made major gaming tradeshows more or less obsolete.