E3 cancelled next year and beyond

[Losifer]

How fucked up is this...

 

E3 Cancelled?

The world's largest videogame convention may be no more.

by IGN Staff

 

July 30, 2006 - According to a report at Next-Generation, E3 2006 may have been the last Electronic Entertainment Expo ever, at least as we know it.

 

While no official announcement from the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) -- the foundation that organizes E3 -- has been made as of yet, the buzz around the videogame industry this weekend is that E3 is no more.

 

The reasons for the change are mostly economic. As Next-Generation reports, "the larger exhibitors have jointly decided that the costs of the event do not justify the returns, generally measured in media exposure." Larger companies such as Electronic Arts, Activision, and Midway have long organized their own individual gamer days for the press to see and play their upcoming titles. E3 is often much more hectic and overwhelming than individual events, so it looks like the larger publishers are questioning the value of displaying their wares on the jam-packed floors of the Los Angeles Convention Center (LACC).

 

There are rumblings that the trade show may go on in a different form. The new show would be vastly reduced in scope and scale, and move from its current location at the massive LACC to a smaller venue.

 

An official press announcement with more details is expected to hit the wire tomorrow. IGN will bring you more on this surprising story as we hear it.

 

you think its gone for good...or just next year.

[IguanaDon?]

I'm typeless.

[archangel]

I smell an uprising in the Gaming community

[Losifer]

My pitchfork is sharpened and ready. get the torches lit.

[The NZA]

the exposure isnt worth it? seriously? Tokyo Game Show doesnt get this shit.

 

Small, private shows are weak, i think - i dunno. If E3 doesnt want to be the venue, im wondering who'll fill the void. You dont get nearly the hype from small, 3rd party shows.

 

Shit, i never got to go.

[Newtype]

My pitchfork is sharpened and ready. get the torches lit.

 

Ready when you are.

[Silent Bob]

I can understand companies not seeing the benefits when they're there on the floor, but I think they're vastly underestimating the amount of exposure and hype E3 stuff gets on the web these days.

[The NZA]

seriously, lotta sites update every 10-15 minutes dorung the event, the hype gets people going for new holiday concoles, sequels, all of it - nintendo made out like bandits this year, the Wii really shined, i heard.

I just end up on YouTube.com watching all the bootleg trailers...i iimagine a lotta games get swept under the carpet while the bigger names steal the limelight, but big companies like Sony cant bitch if they didnt get the results theyd hoped for.

[Losifer]

I wonder what party was the first to say, "Fuck! Thanks to E3, We're broke. Fuck this! We aint goin' next year."

[The NZA]

SNK? :???:

[Losifer]

SNK? :???:

 

FUCK! You're probably right. U____U

[bishopcruz]

Well, from what I heard they had a tiny ass booth, so it wasn't a wallet breaker, but I have been hearing about just how much the e3 rigs cost for some of the middle level companies.

 

Still, gamespot figures that it may just be resizing and shit like that, and I believe the LA convention center is still booked up until 2012, so who knows?

 

I agree with the others in saysing that single company shows are gay.

[Newtype]

A GameSpot writeup cites unnamed sources as saying that mega-publishers Electronic Arts, Microsoft, Sony, and THQ "were among those pushing hardest for changes to the event," for strictly monetary reasons. "Floor space alone costs exhibitors over $12 million," the article reads, and that price doesn't count booth-building or marketing-related costs.

 

It's the end of an era: E3, as we knew it, is no more. E3 2007 "will not feature the large trade show environment of previous years," the ESA officially confirmed today.

 

It its place will be a "more intimate program" that places emphasis on "higher quality, more personal dialogue" with international media, developers, and retailers, ESA president Douglas Lowenstein said in a statement. This will include "press events and small meetings," the ESA statement reads.

 

The E3 transition to a smaller, targeted show will take place over the "next several months," Lowenstein said. "E3Expo remains an important event for the industry and we want to keep that sense of excitement," and the new show will result in an "effective and more efficient way" for companies to dispense gaming information to the media and consumers, Lowenstein added.

[Newtype]

It was about big-ness, most especially big crowds. We won't see scenes like this again. So why did the hardware manufacturers and big publishers decide E3 was no longer tenable? Why did the other publishers follow suit. Here are our ten reasons...

I was editor-in-chief of the Official E3 Show Daily in 2006, and a few of those produced in the late 1990s. I attended the first E3, and the last and most of the others in between.

 

I'm sorry that this event has gone, to be replaced by some new thing, much smaller in scale - more 'intimate' is the euphemism of the moment. It was a great way to meet and greet friends, allies and rivals in the business. It was exciting and fun and loud. It had its faults, but it acted as a focal point for the industry, before the summer's business of preparing for the Holidays really began.

 

It was an opportunity to take stock of the industry as a whole - the people, the products and the trends.

 

Many greeted the news that E3 had gone with shock. But, in reality, its days were numbered. Here's why...

 

1. The People Who Pay Weren't Happy

E3 was a great showpiece for the industry as a whole. But the industry as a whole does not pay for E3. Individual companies pay. They need to be able to demonstrate tangible benefits for that expense, just as they would for any other marketing cost. Those benefits were always difficult to justify, but had now become completely untenable. We understand some publishers still believe the show pays its way (for them individually). The trouble is, not enough companies took this view.

 

2. Four People Said 'Enough'

When I spoke to some people about E3's collapse, the general response was one of disbelief. How could something so big fall apart so quickly? Perhaps this is why so many news outlets simply refused to believe the news. The fact is that all it took were a very small number of company presidents to talk with each other, and figure out that if they all decided to pass, none of them would need to be there. Once Nintendo, Microsoft, SCEA and EA had stepped out, E3 was history. It was multilateral disarmament.

 

3. Media Irrelevance

There was a time when the game industry could enjoy its little May media window, as major news networks sent their reporters to the show to talk about the state of the industry. The fact that they usually filed stories on either videogame violence or new hardware launches that would have been reported anyway, seems to have been allowed to slide. These days, games are a major entertainment for people of most ages. News editors can't afford to just cover games during E3, or with a pre-Holidays buyers' guide. Games are always on the radar.

 

4. The 'E3 Winners' Farce

The 'who won E3?' contest beloved of we in the media had become a real problem. E3 is not a sporting contest, and yet it was increasingly seen as some form of championship. Every year we have one winner (2006: Nintendo; 2005: Sony etc.). Companies on this merry-go-round must sooner or later see that the value of winning one-in-three is not balanced by losing two in three.

 

5. Rise of Publisher Events

Media events held by companies to show off their own products offer publishers more control, lower costs and a more intimate atmosphere. They've been growing drastically in scale and importance. Without the burden of E3's expenses, this trend will continue, only more so. The downside of this is that, while larger companies can expect wide media coverage of their events. Smaller companies cannot make so much noise. The likely outcome will be more lavish events designed to attract jaded journalist. Or road-trips, in which companies make the effort to present their goods to the widest possible audience.

 

6. Common Sense

Then there's common sense. For example - Nintendo's aim at E3 was to get Wii into as many hands as possible. There must be better ways of doing this than spending $20 million making a bunch of developers and blog editors stand in a line for three hours.

 

7. The Internet

The Internet generally gets the blame for bringing old establishments to their knees, and this is no exception. Information is disseminated faster and at better resolution than ever. The need to go to Los Angeles to look at a game is somewhat negated when you can download a movie, or play a demo on Xbox Live. No, it's not the same, but it's close enough to make a difference.

 

8. The High Cost

Convention Centers the world over charge extortionate prices for mundane services and LACC is no exception. There is something extremely infuriating about being charged $20 for a sandwich, a soda and a packet of chips. E3 didn't die because of the price of sandwiches. But the fact that every single thing associated with the show cost a great deal of money was a contributing factor.

 

9. The Herculean Effort

E3 isn't just measured in terms of the cost of the booth, the floor-space, the party, the hotel, the flights etc. There's also the incredible amount of effort that goes into preparing for the show. Marketing teams are focused on E3 for a good six months of the year. Developers are whipped along as they try to get games ready for what is, essentially, an artificial deadline. It could be argued that this adds focus to development as projects near their conclusion, or it could be argued that it's an unnecessary diversion and a big pain in the ass. Publishers that focus on company-specific events are not under so much pressure to compete with the rest of the market for column inches, months before the real battle of competing for consumer dollars.

 

10. Big Shows are Passe

For all of the reasons above, massive pan-industry events are feeling the squeeze. In many industries, attendance figures are down, while companies seek to cut costs by camping outside these events, or by avoiding them altogether. Cities that hold these events are often criticized for ramping up hotel prices and gouging attendees. Ultimately, they are losing the cost / benefit analysis.

 

Whatever passes for E3 next May, Next-Gen will be there. It may be called E3. It may feature some people looking at games in a big room. There may even be some free drinks. But it ain't going to be E3.

[Drifter]

Prices and OVERcommercialization are not good things, vendors are there to pimp there shit, don't dick them over, but in the end people are screwed... fuckers tried the same shit with woodstock 2.0, what they got was a near riot, 500 arrests, 5 rapes, two deaths, and the fact that hardly anyone can remember that there WAS a second woodstock... fucking Pepsi Co.

[Newtype]