December 18, 2007 -
Everyone agrees that this year's E3 in Santa Monica didn't quite work out.
So the Entertainment Software Association is moving the show back to the Los Angeles Convention Center. The announcement comes this morning by way of an ESA press release. E3 '08 will run from July 15-17.
Despite the return to the LACC, the conspicuous consumption flavor of E3 circa 1998-2006 will likely remain a thing of the past. From the press release:
The event will continue to focus on the business of the computer and video game industry, with an emphasis on press events and small meetings with media, development, and other key sectors. While there will be opportunities for game demonstrations, the 2008 E3 Media & Business Summit will not feature the large trade show environment of
previous years.
ESA head honcho Mike Gallagher commented:
We look forward to welcoming the media and top industry executives to a centralized, business focused and personalized experience. Our program of high-level meetings, networking and personal dialogue, and industry-shaping panel discussions will capture the explosive growth we have seen in 2007 and lay the foundation for the 2008 video game marketplace.
Comments
I wonder how many years it'll take before it ends up the way it was before again.
Sure E3 was too big, but maybe thats because it was realistically the only one out there worth visiting? By touring a smaller version of it, they could have much better returns.
I can't wait to see what kind of retarded Wiimote accessories the little Korean companies come up with!
"I wonder how many years it’ll take before it ends up the way it was before again. "
Hopefully never, I think the ECA should take this on as a project for the future....a tradeshow for the consumers! A perfect fit I would say.
I am glad that they changed the format. It should never have gotten as bad as it was.
But how exactly would one go about a consumer trade show? Would the video game companies go for it? After all, it would seem to drain from funds the ywould use for tv and internet advertising.
E. Zachary Knight
Divine Knight Gaming
OK Game Devs
Random Tower
No, they aren't. Did you read the article?
Daniel,
No, it isn't. Did you read the article?
The ESA is moving locations for the next E3. That is all. The inside the 'silicon beltway' attitude is still there.
The old E3 wasn't good for the industry, no matter how you spin it. It was just good for gamers to pretend they were press or industry and get sneak peaks and get free stuff. The ESA knows their game, and the numbers just don't add up to, "They will realize they were wrong and make it how it was."
With this new format, the onus is on the industry to provide innovation, and they don't have the excuse of the expense and distraction of legions of gamer fanboy/girls running around muddying up the works. If they continue to rehash old IP and give us N-th iterations of MGS, Madden, Final Fantasy, GTA, etc. then we can vote with our dollars. Too bad that won't happen. Gamers like to buy into hype (as evidenced by the popularity of a TRADESHOW by fans of the genre), as the continued successes of 20X6 versions of old games give game companies no reason to change.
I love how gamers lament the loss of E3 when we lost nothing but a hype/PR machine, at the very least, from the perspective of getting game producers to make better games.
~~All Knowledge is Worth Having~~
No it wasn't. It was E3 as it came to be known in the minds of gamers. E3 really had nothing to do with us.
I fully support the idea of a consumer show, however, we already have a good many, and at least one will likely outstrip the old Con-like E3 in the near future - PAX. I definitely think the ECA should organize national meetings, at least.
~~All Knowledge is Worth Having~~
Why yes I did read the article.d. Personally, I'd call them deciding to move back to the LACC and re-centralize E3 to be them realizing that part of their grand plan to replace E3 (aka the splitting it up across several hotels and such) was a bad idea. That's certainly a start on realizing they screwed up and should have done something different after deciding that a change was needed.
@BaronJuJu and ~the1jeffy
I'm not saying that they're making it the way it was before. I'm not saying they're trying to. I'm not saying they should. However the "press events and small meetings with media, development, and other key sectors" was there all along, they just blending into, then partially got lost in the general show and spectacle that E3 generated. The rest grew up over time. Unchecked it'll end up that way again, as there's some demand for that sort of spectacle from the industry and the press.
That'd be some of the reasons to scale back E3. Unfortunately, what they did was kill it entirely. Which left them lacking in other areas, such as centralization, and smaller publishers and such.
I also don't want the industry handling a consumer show. Let us handle it and let us invite who we want and let us set the rules. PAX is doing a pretty damned good job of it.
More like they killed E3, then realized they killed the good aspects of it along with the bad. Now they're going "Oh crap, that didn't work." and trying to bring back the good aspects.
I was so depressed to hear that E3 died down, before I had a chance to go. I had future plans of going there with friends...
Don't be fooled. Most people I talked to actually liked E3 last year. It wasn't the hotel setup itself that was a problem (all of the hotels were within one block of one another except for the Fairmont, which was kind of a hassle). The big problem was Barker Hangar, which was in the middle of nowhere and pretty much useless. I don't know why they didn't use the Santa Monica events center, where Nintendo held their press conference. It's right across the street from the main hotels, so that would have been much more convenient.
The press and publishers seemed to be generally in much better spirits, and much less frazzled than past E3s. Companies showed fewer -- but more prominent -- titles, demo reps weren't hoarse from shouting over blaring techno music for eight hours, we were able to get information up faster than ever because our appointment schedules weren't as hectic, and the general mood from everyone felt much more focused and pleasant.
One of the biggest problems last year was that the ESA did a very poor job of organizing the invite lists (as we heard from several publishers who all said communication was horrible), so hopefully they'll get that settled this year.
I'm personally not excited about E3 being back at the LA Convention Center because downtown Los Angeles is boring, lacks basic services such as late night food, and is, quite frankly, scary. Santa Monica was much better IMO, so I'm kinda sad to see it go back to the LACC so soon.
I was one of the people surveyed post-E3, and my sentiments then mimic what I'm saying now.
FINALLY!!!
E3 HAS COME BACK TO L.A. :)
that and it's really hard to kill a good thing, I mean "harder than getting jack thompson disbarred" hard.
Even your description of it amounts to "didn't quite work out". The lack of centralization was problematic, communication was poor, and probably a few other things. That isn't exactly smooth sailing. Attempting to change venue at the same time they were trying to scale back clearly threw a wrench in the works. So now they're trying to fix that by moving back to the familiar local while they get the kinks ironed out of the scale back. Then they can figure out if a location change is actually warranted.
@DCOW
Yeah, some of that too. There's clearly an element that enjoys the event having a festive atmosphere. Makes removing the festive atmosphere entirely difficult to do, especially in a single sweep.
I've been going to E3 since 1995 (and CES in Chicago before that, which was the genesis of E3), and I have to say E3 2007 was by far the most focused in terms of product, most pleasant in terms of general attitude of the attendees, and least stressful E3 I've ever attended. Even with the SNAFUs, it was actually better last year than any year it was held at the LACC (in my opinion, of course) and that's considering that the week before, I was absolutely dreading going to the "new" show for fear of the new format.
Of course, the big losers last year were the smaller companies, since they didn't really have much of a presence at the Santa Monica show. However, by the sound of it, the ESA wants to keep the smaller focus, so they may not be represented at the 2008 show, either.
We'll just have to see how it is this year, but I (along with several other people I've talked to) will miss what they were trying to do in Santa Monica. Just don't move it back to Atlanta, or to Las Vegas for that matter! After spending two hours in cab lines during CES, I never want to go to another convention in Vegas. *shudder*
I will admit though, I always looked forward to the EGM and other media coverage every year.
-Mike Schwinger
Personally, I really wanted to see E3 for myself someday...