(Heart) Breaking News...
By nicole. Monday, 31. July 2006, 20:17:15
You can say goodbye to free Nintendo lanyards and DS screencleaners: E3 as we know it is
As of yesterday all major exhibitors denounced their involvement in E3 for future events causing many smaller companies to follow. Their reasoning? High cost booths and publicity do not blend well enough together to make the perfect profit and exposure smoothie. Without the big names with big secrets to draw media to E3, many smaller companies would suffer from the thousands of dollars lost to booths that noone will see. So what happens now?
The ESA (Entertainment Software Assiociation) claims E3 has been reborn into a "more intimate" trade show. Meaning E3 with no Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft....no crazy booths and giveaways and no Snoop Dogg (do you understand what I am telling you?! E3 without Snoop Dogg! what is this industry coming to??). In representation; ESA President, Doug Lownestein stated earlier today,
Obviously, they are trying to make it seem like this whole catastrophe was the ESA's brilliant plan to make E3 better."It has become clear that we need a more intimate program, including higher quality, more personal dialogue with the worldwide media developers, retailers and other key industry audiences."
Smooth, Doug. Real smooth."It is no longer necessary or efficient to have a single industry 'mega-show.' By refocusing on a highly-targeted event, we think we can do a better job serving our members and the industry as a whole, and our members are energized about creating this new E3."
Without big the big names, I don't think we should expect much from E3 2007. Over the next several months, as E3 transforms into it's snazzy new self, more companies will be likely to pull out.
The culprit behind this mess? I'll give you a hint: they had the largest booth at E3 with the shortest line. It was filled with unfinished games that were playable by repeatedly pressing one button on the controller that they claimed to have redesigned but changed their minds right before the expo and resorted to the same controller with a weak version of someone else's new technology. And, all of their new games on their $600 system (which is roughly equal to my monthly car payment) where being played on PC's that where clearly displayed in a big black case in the middle of the booth.
I'm grateful to have had the opportunity to attend the last real E3.
http://next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3546&Itemid=2
http://next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3538&Itemid=2
http://www.gamespot.com/news/6154935.html?part=rss&tag=gs_news&subj=6154935
http://www.joystiq.com/
(52%)
WIDGETIZE
.ed # 31. July 2006, 21:12
The last two years, that I have seen personally, have been flooded with what I would consider to be the most selfish attendee: the "I got a job at Gamestop so I could come here and play Gears of War before my friends, cut in line to choke the flow of media coverage, and make a scene when I got back to work by bragging until I had the respect of my peers that I couldn't earn otherwise" Gamer.
The above example is the type who may be pushing sales at the register, but at the expense of tainting the industry by having companies strive and spend to get this guy's attention at the show. Boobs, Guns, Explosions, et al.
This was inevitable. But hopefully it will give rise to the previously successful independent shows and make way for a more varied experience year round.
Jon # 1. August 2006, 01:39
Anton # 1. August 2006, 04:03
This gave me hint of the Neeecole mentioned sytem/software developer having been behind this, but out of a rebutle to myself I thought it may be because of my Nintendo fan-boy tendancies to assume that stance. However, if a second notice is in the mention than we may be on to somthing. The big company was pretty much the only company that got negative "media coverage" and yielded a Negative "return on investment"
Now, E3 was held pretty high in terms of "dude I went thurrr", and I guess now we have the Tokyo Game Show to look forward to getting into. and when we attend that, then we can say "DEEDS! I WENT THURRR!"