E3 to be downsized

posted on Tuesday, August 1, 2006 at 2:19 AM by Brian Sullivan

You may have heard rumblings on the internet: "OMG E3 Cancelled!" Well, although the trade show isn't cancelled, to say, it's going to be dramatically different next year. The newly titled "E3 Media Festival" will take place in July instead of May and will host 5,000 people rather than the massive numbers that attended previous E3s. Instead of being held in the LA Convention Center, E3 next year will be held inside conference rooms in LA hotels.

E3 as we know it is gigantic event -- the entire internet feels slower during Nintendo's press conference -- and is characterized by huge crowds, expensive and exuberant booth designs, and myriad publishers trying to make their game stand out among the rest with buzz words and freebies. As a result, a few games get bathed in attention while some go unnoticed altogether. Although I was looking forward to the media rush that is E3, hopefully the smaller-scale event will put the focus back on the games.

Permalink | E3 | Industry

Comments

Inferno101487: This kinds sux! E3 was supposed to be a major attraction... not some little side fair where u check out the minor games. It is survival of the fittest, who cares about the little games we wanna see the big behemoths come out swinging... Ugh. (walks away in disgust)

Darian Loneheart: See that dot up there? It's, like, right above your head, about 15-20 miles up? Yeah... It's going to be the exact opposite, in all likelyhood. A smaller event does not mean a focus on smaller games; this happened as a result of pressure from MS, Sony, Nintendo, EA, etc. and if the big boys are sending out the invitations I really don't feel too optimistic about betting on the smaller games/companies.

Sullichin: Yeah, if anything, less space = less of a chance for the smaller companies...

Darian Loneheart: I agree with the idea that the smaller even will put focus back on the games asopposed to the show, but the focus is going to be on the games that will already be getting plenty of focus. Toning down the show in this way has its benefits and flaws; all-in-all I wish they had toned it down for better reasons and I wish the ESA had made this decision independantly. I think this is very indicative of just how much pull the big publishers have in the industry and how strongly they're willing to use it. To think that they weren't considering that when they asked for this is just naive; now they get to spend less money on a show, they don't have to save up their big news for one event where it will get buried under all the other big news (which means they can more easily keep their hype mills running year-round), they get more exposure, and they (potentially) keep out the little guys.

linked to the past: I wish I could've gone just once.. Oh well, I guess there's always PAX.

Darian Loneheart: Same here, especially since there was a slim chance that I could have gone last year and I totally passed on it. :(

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