E3 is Dead; Long Live E3!

[DoctorFinger]

It's the circle of life. As announced on tonight's X-Play, the ESA is taking the Electronic Entertainment Expo back to it's pre-2007 roots.

The June 2-4 2009 show will scale back the rigorous vetting of attendees (although the show will still be at least nominally closed to the public) in an effort to bring back the raucous crowds of previous years.

For those who forget, E3 went to an smaller, more intimate format after the major exhibitors balked at the astronomical costs required to set up the elaborate booths (one report claims the biggest booths cost upwards of $12M.) The 2007 show was criticized for being spread out over seemingly all of Los Angeles County, and the 2008 show - attended by our own Bapenguin and Psykoboy - was simply panned as dull, poorly planned and without juice.

Personally, I think E3, in any format, is not long for this world. With the old/returning format the lines for everything are so long that no one can really get an accurate picture of anything. With the 07-08 format too many companies just didn't bother making a big deal over it. In this day and age companies are more likely to plan money and announcement around their own 'Gamer Day' events than they are to splurge on a massive booth at E3.

Source - X-Play (http://www.g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/index.html?t=690276#690276).

UPDATE - N'Gai Croal is reporting - based on anonymous sources - that the new E3 will be closed to the public for the first 3 days (Tue June 2-Thu June 4) and open to the public the final 2 days (Friday 5th-Sat 6th). This is unconfirmed at the moment.

[Stoke]

The only thing I care about from E3 anymore is the big shows from the 3 major players. I like watching them live and being entertained by them, whether from excitement (Sony) or hilarity (Nintendo). The attempted resurection of the old E3 can only benefit that part of the show.

[pomeroy]

TGS and PAX have pretty much made E3 irrelevant in my mind.

[Ondo]

Level Up has a more informative article about it here (http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/levelup/archive/2008/10/20/scoop-expanded-e3-2009-take-place-first-week-of-june.aspx); however, on at least one detail they disagree - Level Up says it will be open to the public.

[DoctorFinger]

TGS and PAX have pretty much made E3 irrelevant in my mind.They both happen real late in the year - PAX in late Aug, TGS in October - way too late for most announcements. As I said, it's not really those events that killed E3, but the Gamer Days that each company holds. The only benefit to E3 was/is the press coverage; it's the only time each year the mainstream media deigns to notice gaming. And the falue of that is negligible.

[Loki]

Still idiotic. Do something like TGS does: First 2 days, Press only; next 2 days, open to public.

[Ondo]

Still idiotic. Do something like TGS does: First 2 days, Press only; next 2 days, open to public.
From the Level Up article:
According to a source close to the process, the convention floor and meeting rooms will open on Tuesday June 2nd to media and industry professionals. On Friday June 5th and Saturday June 6th, however, the show floor will open up to the public.

[bapenguin]

Lets see what the publishers do. I think a lot of them are tired of E3 in general. They are happy having their own thing, and then the other various events.

[KingGorilla]

What about the poor bastard developers? I have not heard a one say that they like wasting their time on getting bullshit demos ready. "Here is our 'vertical slice' we know you will be generous and hopefully will not hold it against us that none of this makes it into the game."

What I would miss is the Showmanship. For good or ill, those Press Conferences were damn entertaining. Not to mention the Live Blogging.

[King3567]

I am glad that E3 is coming back. PAX seems like more of a literal gaming convention and about the social aspect and TGS usually sucks in terms of announcements. E3 was where it was at until it started sucking in 2007.

[bean]

Were you at E3 2006? The only really long line was to get in to see the Nintendo Wii and press and buyers (non game industry folks basically) got to cut the line. I was there as a consultant (can't say more, NDA) and it was absolutely amazing and nuts, but I could get up to play MOST games.

Some tidbits about E3 2006 to show off the kinds of things we will be getting back (good or bad):


The now vaporware Huxley had a huge showing with a huge number of PCs networked to allow multiplayer. The game was a bit of a disappointment in this stage as it felt like just-another-FPS as none of the massively-multiplayer features were demoed.
NCSoft had an incredibly loud band that blasted an entire hall every 15 minutes. When you were at their booths, you literally had to yell to be heard. It was like being in the front row of a rock concert, but still trying to talk. Their games were enough to bring us there; the band was enough to scare us off. Even in 2006, Aion looked pretty good. I remember looking for Tabula Rasa, but I didn't get to play. I think they were demoing to Gamespot while I was there and then the band scared me off.
At one point, Paris Hilton showed up to pitch some cell phone game or something. I remember there being a lot of jokes about her getting mobbed by nerds.
There was a full half-pipe that professional skaters took turns performing amazing tricks on. I would normally have been very entertained, but I was more interested in the games.
Actual important people were everywhere. Game industry execs, big game developers, and then. . . tons of kids. It was a bit surreal how these obvious teenagers somehow made it in. They definitely should have put a stop to that.
The prices of food and drink were extremely high, and the quality was extremely poor. Also the hall is absolutely huge, so you needed to have a drink. I probalby spent $20 on water and sodas each day.
One of the best booths around was Nvidias. They actually had a large set up for developers to show off PC games with each booth having a developer next to the game to talk to as they demoed the product. I got in depth demos of Battlefield: 2042, Neverwinter Nights 2, Gods & Heroes (sad that this went vaporware), and Pirates of the Burning Sea (they didn't have sword-fighting at this point and I remember saying to them that this was something that they had to have, right?) Meanwhile, unbeknownst to me, they were getting an interview from the MMORPG. com head editor who I met that night, Dana Something. He isn't with them anymore, I tried to look up his name for this. Nice guy.
Microsoft had a really cool set up with these very odd looking tvs mounted in vertical circles so that you sat in the middle of the vertical ring and had the tv at eye level. They had a lot showing compared to the then just releasing PS3 and Wii.
Squaresoft/Enix had a huge booth and some really great swag. I remember playing Valkyrie Profile 2 and really enjoying it, but the game was in the middle and I had no idea what was going on. There was no way to reset and I got beat up pretty bad at first. I couldn't tell what a big departure it was from the original or I would have been very disappointed. All I saw was the battle system. . . I kept hoping there was a tie-in with preparing warriors to fight in Val-halla that I just wasn't seeing. Hopefully they'll make a sequel that gets back to it's roots. They also had a really weird set up with bean bags and the ability to log in to FF X and play the MMO with your account while at E3. . . you might think that these bags would go unfilled, but you would be wrong. There were absolutely people playing them.
Most of the biggest announcements didn't come with accompanying game demos. E3 2006 was the year after the 360 came out and the year that both the Wii and the PS3 were coming out (in November), and it was the year that we first heard about all the crazy awesome games we've gotten in 2007 and 2008. For instance, there was a huge screen constantly playing provocative cut-scenes from MGS, but absolutely zero demos. Likewise, you could see footage of Bioshock, Portal, and Lost Odyssey but nothing playable.


I despise gatherings, but I loved E3 2006. I'm about to graduate college this semester and I hope to enter the industry as a game designer. Hopefully it will be back to it's former insanity the next time I am able to attend.

[bean]

What about the poor bastard developers? I have not heard a one say that they like wasting their time on getting bullshit demos ready. "Here is our 'vertical slice' we know you will be generous and hopefully will not hold it against us that none of this makes it into the game."

I think most developers and publishers are getting more savy about this and simply won't show a game that isn't ready to be shown at a press event. There are levels of exposure and work too. I'm seeing a lot more guided demos that obviously only show off parts of games that are ready to be shown and that have a developer there to explain their context rather than having a reporter pick a game up from the middle and judge it without having learned the controls or being drawn in by the narrative. Finally, sometimes they don't even show a game beyond a trailer or a developer diary.

[Sazime]

Lets see what the publishers do. I think a lot of them are tired of E3 in general. They are happy having their own thing, and then the other various events.
I can tell you what I like. Sitting in a room with devs and getting one on one time with them. PR people can be great, but give me a 4 game event with ~60 people and the folks who are working on the game any day.

Talking to Matt Karch (CEO of Saber Interactive) and having him introduce me to the guys who worked on the game was probably one of the best "preview" experiences I've ever had. And it was the first event I covered.

[Widgetcraft]

I'd rather go to PAX.

[Sandman]

E3 is about the announcements and press conferences which IMO is work even for journalists. PAX however is about the community, seeing panels related to things you would otherwise see just on the internets, playing games months before you'll be able to buy them and cool swag. PAX is for me.

[AgtFox]

Just remember that at this time the biggest 3rd party company will not be in attendance since they broke off from the ESA: Activision Blizzard.

I also believe id is on the outs with them as well and Rage could be close to release by then. Then again, it is published by EA, so something might be able to be worked out.

It sounds great, but the ESA has a habit of deciding something without consulting its members and their feelings.

As for Gamer's Days by various publishers, those happened around the time of the old E3 for the last couple years. Now they will have to decide whether they want to do that or hold out a couple weeks longer for E3.

[frederec]

Just remember that at this time the biggest 3rd party company will not be in attendance since they broke off from the ESA: Activision Blizzard.

I also believe id is on the outs with them as well and Rage could be close to release by then. Then again, it is published by EA, so something might be able to be worked out.

It sounds great, but the ESA has a habit of deciding something without consulting its members and their feelings.

As for Gamer's Days by various publishers, those happened around the time of the old E3 for the last couple years. Now they will have to decide whether they want to do that or hold out a couple weeks longer for E3.

And in addition to the bigger publishers, some of the smaller publishers are turning away too. For me E3 this past year was notable for the absence of Atlus USA, who decided to announce their big title of the year (Persona 4) at an anime convention rather than a gaming convention.

I felt like this went along with the idea that someone mentioned up higher where companies are just having their own events, rather than trying to compete for space in a big convention. And for a company like Atlus, it's very possible that they'll get the notice of more of their fans at an anime convention than a crowded game convention.

[kropotkin]

This news, if we can call it that for it's really just a rumour right now, has me torn. On the one hand we have the hope of gaining access to E3 to much smaller sites/outlets that have been closed out over the past 2 years. This is a good thing. The bad side to this is that it could return to the bad old days of hoards of people waiting in line to play [insert hotly anticipated game/hardware here] along with deafening music and massive booths that could house a family in.

Thinking about it there is the possibility of both PAX and E3 co-existing as they could and do offer very different experiences. E3 gives access to games that are not due to appear for 6-12 months. PAX provides a social gathering of gamers in an organised space that is an extension of message boards like the one you're reading now.

I say kill of E4All for no one gave a crap about it this year and turn E3 into the North American equivalent to Liepzig. For if there was a winner for 'best show' this year then Liepzig actually won when you consider the announcements and content on the show floor. Over 200k people went to that thing and they had both press and public days. ESA saw that and has learned from it.

[Xerxes]

Isn't E3 where that guy who wasn't handicapp sitting in a wheel chair groping boobies? Anyways, I'd like to think it was only a matter of time.

[Purple Santa]

Isn't E3 where that guy who wasn't handicapp sitting in a wheel chair groping boobies? Anyways, I'd like to think it was only a matter of time.

Yep and it was a grand fun ole time I had doing that :D

Welcome back E3! You were missed...although you really weren't gone...sorta...kinda...um, well...welcome back anyway :confused:

[Xerxes]

Yep and it was a grand fun ole time I had doing that :D

Welcome back E3! You were missed...although you really weren't gone...sorta...kinda...um, well...welcome back anyway :confused:

Dude that guy was so hated.