VentureBeat's Dean Takahashi is the latest to weigh in on E3's future (or potential lack thereof).
Although of Dean's sources have already been cited here on GamePolitics, he did some quick polling of media and industry types yesterday and found some new voices ready to weigh in:
Joseph Olin, president of the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences offered a succinct perspective:
The irony is that we have a cultural revolution, with more people enjoying interactive entertainment than at any other time in our history; the video game industry has never been better. And you would think that we are going out of business here. We’ve lost the opportunity to stand up on our soap boxes and shout, look at me. The one thing the traditional E3 did was light the place up like a roman candle lit at both ends and focus the world’s media attention on us.
ECA boss Hal Halpin suggested combining E for All with E3 in a format more like that of the Tokyo Game Show. Meanwhile, game designer David Perry called the 2008 show an embarrassment and suggested opening it up to all game developers and publishers.
UPDATE: Meanwhile, The Game Reviews has E3 quotes from noted developer Denis Dyack:
I think this has definitely been better for the industry, simply because the amount of cost that was sunk into 2006 was not supportable. It could not have continued much longer. It was funny because I remember 2005 and 2006, and I was talking to people going, "I do not even know why we are doing this stuff anymore, delaying games by like two quarters to do these demos to get "Best in Show for E3" that really does not mean that much." And suddenly it crashed; it was like the Berlin Wall falling in 2006 after they announced it.
I do not really understand at some level why it all needs to be shown all at once. I would rather like to see it more like press junkets when stuff comes out, with a rotation for [press] to cover things in a really thorough and critical way. So I think this is better because it is smaller, but I think it would be better if it was not around at all. Nothing against ESA, but you know, I think, ’Oh well, there is another controversial thing I just said.’
Full Disclosure Dept: The ECA is the parent company of GamePolitics.
Comments
Re: E3 or Not E3 Debate Rages On
In my opinion, E3 should just die. It's obvious that the ESA can't keep it afloat, let alone bring it back to its former glory. And do we really need it? Developers and publishers have every right to have their own press conferences for demos and trailers, and they can do it at any time they want. And with that, the industry won't be completely guided around "the big event". The only thing E3 did differently from a press conference was bring us closer to the casual gamers and non-gamers, and it wasn't doing a very good job at that. The only friends I know who know what E3 is are all core gamers like myself, none of my casual gaming friends knew about it until I told them.
Re: E3 or Not E3 Debate Rages On
I think this is less about E3, and more about the Industry's attitude as a whole.
I watched G4's coverage, and wasn't terribly impressed by any of it.
Allow me to ask you this: How many games/ideas were sequals/extensions of already existing games vs. the number of true NEW titles announced at the big three press conferences? Ones that were already announced don't count. (Ahem: Little Big Planet). You can probably count the new ones on one hand, and that's not a good thing.
There was little coverage of other developers that may be trying something new and exciting.
I say if this is the way E3 is going to be from here on out, they should scrap it. It just wastes the time and money of all parties involved. Everything they did at this year's E3 could have just been released online.
That's just my opinion.
Re: E3 or Not E3 Debate Rages On
Honestly, I don't get it. E3 isn't a public event, it was for insiders only. It wasn't for the average gamer to go into and have fun playing with, it was to give us a chance to play games vicariously through journalists. I can see the need for all the additional flash at PaX where the public is allowed to enter, but E3 is all about the game coverage. What I've seen this year is the same quality of coverage I've seen during any other E3, just with fewer tits. The way I see it journalists who are making a livlihood off game coverage are just being selfish, by whining to their customers that the big media event where they get their info isn't as fun for them. In other words "my job isn't as fun as it used to be QQ"
Re: E3 or Not E3 Debate Rages On
It was always supposed to be about letting the "average person" inside. It was also supposed to draw enough attention that the mainstream media would finally look at the interactive entertainment market as serious business. However, the current e3 doesn't deliver on the promises of its predecessors. While the content is the same, the entire process looks less fun than it used to.
Re: E3 or Not E3 Debate Rages On
When I was little, I had this idea of what E3 was supposed to be like.
PAX turns out to be everything I ever hoped E3 would be.
I was honestly surprised to hear that E3 was still going on.
Re: E3 or Not E3 Debate Rages On
They never should have gotten rid of booth babes. As soon as they said "We are professionals, we shouldn't have all this (waves hands) around!" then they became boring. When you get too full of yourself that you feel you shouldn't need those extra things, then you need a reality check.
If you want things back the way they were, then promote booth babes, blaring music, actors with huge machine guns, movie screens on the ceiling pointed down, dry ice, laser ligth shows... the works.
Everyone liked the circus coming to town, but when they go in and it s just a Ben Stein stunt man reading from the phone book, no tthat many people will be coming back next year.
Re: E3 or Not E3 Debate Rages On
Guess the ESA hates gamers now.
Re: E3 or Not E3 Debate Rages On
Re: E3 or Not E3 Debate Rages On
I dunno, I always thought it was a weird move to change it like they did anyway. I'd love to see it back as it was and run like the tokyo game show.
Re: E3 or Not E3 Debate Rages On
ECA boss Hal Halpin suggested combining E for All with E3 in a format more like that of the Tokyo Game Show. Meanwhile, game designer David Perry called the 2008 show an embarrassment and suggested opening it up to all game developers and publishers.
In other words make it more like it was. They couldn't have just made minor changes two years ago.. why exactly?
-Gray17