Oculus Won’t Have a Booth at E3

Oculus has had a large presence at E3 in previous years, but now it has been confirmed the VR giant will not have a booth at E3 2017. Though you might be groaning in sadness, the E3 staff are undoubtedly breathing a sigh of relief, because the Oculus booth brings in some of the largest lines at the expo.

This will be the first time since 2014 Oculus will be skipping gaming’s biggest event. The decision to do so has ignited the ongoing discussion of E3’s relevance, as Oculus will be following in the wake of companies like Nintendo and EA in skipping the show floor. However, it is also worth reminding folks that Facebook owns Oculus, and Facebook has never had much interest in E3 anyway.

The Oculus booth last year showcased its motion Touch controllers, along with a few titles. Now that Touch is out and about, though, and because the company discussed many of its upcoming ventures at the GDC in March, it probably makes since to take a breather from E3 and share more information as the year rolls on.

Despite the absence, the company assures it has many great announcements coming in the later half of the year. Speaking to Gameindustrybiz, a spokesperson for Oculus explained, “We will not have a booth at E3 – we’re focusing on the awesome games and announcements we’ll share throughout this year.”

For those who missed the GDC, some of those “awesome games” include:

• Blade & Soul: Table Arena, NCSoft
• From Other Suns, Gunfire Games
• Mage’s Tale, inXile Entertainement
• Term1nal, Forcefield

In the midst of the the E3 absence news, the company has also experienced its own share of scrapes this year, with articles primarily focused on the departure of co-founder Palmer Luckey, as well as its legal woes with ZeniMax.

Now that the dust has settled on both of those accounts, the focus can truly get back to delivering great content. While the Oculus may not have its booth at E3 this year, we are still guaranteed to see the Rift platform at the booths of publishing partners.