Big Download reports that last week's E For All Expo in Los Angeles was not well attended:
The second annual E For All Expo is over and the self-proclaimed "North America's premier video game event" actually came away with lower attendance than last year's inaugural event. The show, held at the LA Convention Center, had 15,000 official attendees this year compared to 18,000 for the first edition of the show (the number might have been even smaller had E For All not hosted two pro gaming events organized by third parties).
Joystiq was similarly unimpressed:
The E for All attendance numbers aren't exactly the most robust for an event being held in a megalopolis like Los Angeles, especially when compared to PAX 2008's 58,500 attendees who trekked up through the great wilderness to find the sleepy town of Seattle. Meanwhile, BlizzCon is capped at 15,000 attendees and those tickets, at $100 apiece, sold out almost as soon as they went on sale.
Among major game publishers, only Microsoft, EA and Ubisoft had a presence at E For All.
Comments
Re: E For All = E For Just a Few?
That's the problem... yet another convention in L.A. And of course they'd hold it on the west coast 'cause of MS and EA.
E3 is still the show to be at... despite its decline over the past couple years.
If people wanted a fresh video game convention, bring it to the midwest or the east coast... Massachusetts or North Carolina on the east coast would be ideal due to the high level of technological and video game industries. Maybe then they might be able to break the 50,000 barrier. ;)
Re: E For All = E For Just a Few?
"Microsoft, EA and Ubisoft had a presence at E For All."
Which was why I didn't attend, that and the $35 admission, and maybe because it would be a little tough to spare the time. I live near L.A. so it wouldn't have been hard to go to it.
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God created alcohol so that the Scottish and the Irish could never take over the world. -Chris 'Jedi' Knight
Re: E For All = E For Just a Few?
1. Gamers typically don't support Microsoft or EA.
2. No promos about the event, like CyberSkull said.
3. Economy taking a hit will hurt those statistics as well.
4. E rated games...
5. No Nintendo...
As for not knowning about it, I think I saw a single item on it, but I don't even know where. That is the first time I have seen that e for all image though. Maybe if they would spend more than a few bucks to advertise, or advertise smartly, they would have had a better turn out, but the economy is still working against them, and people are still trying to save money. With only companies like EA, Microsoft, and Ubisoft over there, it isn't worth much to go in the first place.
I rather go to a tiny game expo with 20 no name companies than a big one with these industry giants. Now if it was a mix of any 3 of T2, Activision/Blizzard, THQ, Sony Online Entertainment, Square Enix, LucasArts, and Midway, then I would be more interested, but I see too much else where to giving a flying monkey about EA, Ubisoft is just repeating their typical line up with some minor games, and Microsoft only has Fable 2 and Gears of War 2, which I get enough coverage else where, and are not E rated games.
So maybe these companies need to make great E rated games in the first place... I rather see Nintendo there myself. Maybe they could demo the 1:1 stuff, which would be worth going to at least...
How to set Xbox 360 Parental Controls
Re: E For All = E For Just a Few?
Wait a minute they only show E rated games there? But they showed off brawl last year and that was T rated game.
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God created alcohol so that the Scottish and the Irish could never take over the world. -Chris 'Jedi' Knight
Re: E For All = E For Just a Few?
Nevermind, brain fart... ignore that, my bad.
Tokyo Game Show is Oct 9-12 for those intrested in keeping track of it, which I beleive is the last major game event of the year, and even until the Game Developer Conference(Mar 23-27).
How to set Xbox 360 Parental Controls
Re: E For All = E For Just a Few?
Not being sarcastic or anything (really), but E For All was just held? I honestly didn't know.
Re: E For All = E For Just a Few?
Same here. The article mentions it being last week, and my response is "Oh yeah, that thing was supposed to be in early October wasn't it?"
-Gray17