E3 Officially Dead?

[The C]

Re: E3 Officially Dead?

What about those poor booth babes? Doesn't anyone care about them?


I called dibs on the clearance sale of them if E3 is done.

[Lintyfresh85]

Re: E3 Officially Dead?

man I really wanted to attend one some day... this is a sad day indeed.

[ExtremeGamer]

Re: E3 Officially Dead?

Yeah, it's not dead, Just changing. Here's further info.

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6154935.html

[CaptainZombie]

Re: E3 Officially Dead?

Yeah, it's not dead, Just changing. Here's further info.

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6154935.html

Nice find Extreme.

As long as E3 isn't going away completely, it should be interesting how this plays out next year.

[SonicMage]

Re: E3 Officially Dead?

Bravo for this welcome change.

Everybody that I know inside the industry, including myself, think that E3 has become one big joke.

Over half of the people there don't belong, and it becomes almost immediately obvious who I am talking about. If you are friends with a receptionist at Activision, you don't belong. If you work the floor at a Best Buy, you don't belong. If you are just a moderator at a forum that is partly devoted to video games (no offense), you don't belong. If you have a flashy short skirt and think Zelda is a fortune-telling game, you don't belong. If you are a giant half-pipe, you don't belong.

If you are a substantial part of an up-and-coming or well-established company with brilliant ideas and an even more brilliant core of developers, you belong. If you are a reporter for a major video game media source that can create maximum exposure for the best (and hopefully, esoteric as well) games, you belong. If you are both looking for more strong game industry connections AND you are a good connection to have, you belong.

Hopefully, a smaller venue will break up the belongs from the be-gones, because it has started to become out of hand. This year, my co-workers and I ran into an important business contact of ours on the show floor, and couldn't even greet each other properly because a few Namco girls were strutting to loud music in our immediate periphery. Imagine trying to do business in other professions that way. Two years ago, I only had a couple hour break during the whole show and the line to see the PS3 was two hours! Most of the people I could see in line didnt look like they had cameras or any kind of recording equipment so I knew they weren't media. At least Kentia Hall provided a welcome break from the din of fanboyism and childish hand gestures during booth babe photo ops (of which there was NO shortage this year), and contained some interesting games being developed from around the world.

Big companies have already kept themselves secure for press releases in small meeting rooms anyways, it seemed like 75% of the huge Microsoft booth was devoted to this, and blocked off from most attendees. I'm sure they dont feel they should also pay such large fees for booth construction and show floor availability.

I am relatively new to the game industry as far as being a considerable part of a game company, so I can't wait to see what is available for E3 once the trivial yet distracting glitz and glamour is taken away from the show again.

[sdrotar]

Re: E3 Officially Dead?

Huge, indeed. I DO like each individual company having their own events to showcase the new games. EA has pretty much nailed this practice, with events such as the Madden Community day, etc.

If there are any journalists reading this that have actually been to and covered an E3, wasn't it pretty much getting to the point where you couldn't effectively cover it anymore anyway, with how big it got?

Absolutely.
In my opinion, this is a great decision.
It's too busy and too loud to get any work done, and all the smaller companies have to spend a ton to be there, only to be immediately lost in the shuffle.

When I first went four years ago, it was busy - but you could still work.
Of late, since literally, any clerk from Best Buy could get in, and did - it became all but useless.

It's become a colossal waste of money, especially for the smaller companies, and it doesn't really get any information out that wouldn't be better served with a smaller, more exclusive media audience.

As someone who's been doing the E3 tour of duty for years, I think this decision is long overdue, and I think consumers - gamers - will be better off because of it.

[Spongedaddy]

Re: E3 Officially Dead?

Absolutely.
In my opinion, this is a great decision.
It's too busy and too loud to get any work done, and all the smaller companies have to spend a ton to be there, only to be immediately lost in the shuffle.

When I first went four years ago, it was busy - but you could still work.
Of late, since literally, any clerk from Best Buy could get in, and did - it became all but useless.

It's become a colossal waste of money, especially for the smaller companies, and it doesn't really get any information out that wouldn't be better served with a smaller, more exclusive media audience.

As someone who's been doing the E3 tour of duty for years, I think this decision is long overdue, and I think consumers - gamers - will be better off because of it.

I see how the need for change is there. I see how the need for a stronger identity is there. I do not see the big companies pulling out as being great for the industry. It would have been nice if everyone would have worked together for the good of the industry and came up with a better show. Instead everyone took their ball and went home.

Tis a sign of the times I suppose.

[jrivera34]

Re: E3 Officially Dead?

Bravo for this welcome change.

Everybody that I know inside the industry, including myself, think that E3 has become one big joke.

Over half of the people there don't belong, and it becomes almost immediately obvious who I am talking about. If you are friends with a receptionist at Activision, you don't belong. If you work the floor at a Best Buy, you don't belong. If you are just a moderator at a forum that is partly devoted to video games (no offense), you don't belong. If you have a flashy short skirt and think Zelda is a fortune-telling game, you don't belong. If you are a giant half-pipe, you don't belong.

If you are a substantial part of an up-and-coming or well-established company with brilliant ideas and an even more brilliant core of developers, you belong. If you are a reporter for a major video game media source that can create maximum exposure for the best (and hopefully, esoteric as well) games, you belong. If you are both looking for more strong game industry connections AND you are a good connection to have, you belong.

Hopefully, a smaller venue will break up the belongs from the be-gones, because it has started to become out of hand. This year, my co-workers and I ran into an important business contact of ours on the show floor, and couldn't even greet each other properly because a few Namco girls were strutting to loud music in our immediate periphery. Imagine trying to do business in other professions that way. Two years ago, I only had a couple hour break during the whole show and the line to see the PS3 was two hours! Most of the people I could see in line didnt look like they had cameras or any kind of recording equipment so I knew they weren't media. At least Kentia Hall provided a welcome break from the din of fanboyism and childish hand gestures during booth babe photo ops (of which there was NO shortage this year), and contained some interesting games being developed from around the world.

Big companies have already kept themselves secure for press releases in small meeting rooms anyways, it seemed like 75% of the huge Microsoft booth was devoted to this, and blocked off from most attendees. I'm sure they dont feel they should also pay such large fees for booth construction and show floor availability.

I am relatively new to the game industry as far as being a considerable part of a game company, so I can't wait to see what is available for E3 once the trivial yet distracting glitz and glamour is taken away from the show again.

I am not in the industry, just a gamer, and I agree with you 100%. Video games are suddenly becoming "cool" instead of something the geeks do. It is funny how making millions of dollars changes peoples opinions. Although I love to stare at someone like Stacey Keibler on TV, it really annoys me when she gets her hands on a new video game console because she is a celebrity.

Just like anything else that goes main stream, I am afraid that one of our favorite past times have been ruined. Hopefully it can be saved, but now that this much money is involved, I doubt it.

This is also the reason we see exclusive deals that have killed the sports genre. Get gaming back to us so called nerds and stop trying to bring in the casual fan. I know this is a pipe dream, but I had to say it.

[MassNole]

Re: E3 Officially Dead?

Wow, G4 now has a huge programming gap to fill now.