E3 won’t be happening anymore?
Next-gen.biz has reported and ‘confirmed’ that E3 will not be happening in its current form in the foreseeable future. ‘Confirmed’ because they got their information from extremely reliable sources, ‘Senior industry officials’. This seems like bad news to me because I enjoyed watching the conferences and seeing the huge chunk of gaming news all in one place. I guess that won’t be happening anymore.
After a number of larger exhibitors had pulled out of the event, meetings were held by other publishers to see how this would impact their presence on the show. Eventually it apparently was decided that there would be no point continuing without the big players on board, and that the publishers will be spending their money on more events pointed directly at their corresponding companies.
The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) shindig has been a staple of game industry life since the mid-1990s. However, we understand the larger exhibitors have jointly decided that the costs of the event do not justify the returns, generally measured in media exposure.
Publishers believe the multi-million dollar budgets would be better spent on more company-focused events that bring attention to their own product lines rather than the industry as a whole.
Gamespot was less explicit in their coverage, stating that the E3 event will be downsized instead of “cancelled”, although that might very well mean the same as “E3 will not be happening in its current form anymore”. Keep in mind that this is all semi-official, and an official statement from ESA is to be expected within 48 hours.
Cue bawling and sobbing.
WTF!!?!????
NNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
WoW! That was unexpected!
you know this is gonna affect the entire gaming industry, right? for instance, picture the north american auto inustry without the detroit auto show
The what now?
read a book!
I think I may cry…
What the hell?
I think I am going to cry!
For the record: I just added some bits and pieces to the article emphasizing that the word from ESA is not out yet and it is not yet clear what “downsizing” means. We’ll have more coverage once the ESA statement is out.
Don’t overreact people, Gamespot’s article on the subject at hand is a little bit more subtle and Chris forgot the key words: ‘in its current form’.
(fixed now though)
Edit: Curry beat me to it
How will we know when Halo 3 comes out. E3 wont tell me.
Just keep reading Xboxic, we’ll be first to tell you
i dont really care about e3 (flameshield up!!), at least now bad games wont get so much hype.
Its a microsoft strategic ploy, they get our hopes down - THEN WHAM, HALO 3 IS OUT. Just you watch.
im guessing they make 3 seperate shows. One for each company. But this really eliminates people seeing other things. If this was the case last E3 the Wii wouldnt have had so much publicity and wouldnt be looking to good now. I think this whole thing is bad for the entire industry. This sucks
Mehh, we’ll see how this turns out.
Thats bullcrap
Super Weak!!
good. mayb we can get some news coming out more regularly instead of 1 week out of the year. plus everyone who goes to it hates going to it, so good i think.
Sorry for the extra scare to the story, everyone. I was overcome with emotion from the thought of no E3.
wahhhhhhhhh
You fail, I’ve never screwed up
What the f**k are these people thinking this is a VERY bad mistake they will pay!!!! E3 must live!!!!!!!!!!!
http://arstechnica.com/ne...s/post/20060730-7382.html
Just downsized, people.
Thanks for the article. It doesn’t sound so bad; we’ll get good info, and I guess the journalists will be happy since there won’t be as many people.
sounds like BS to me
Next-Gen.biz and Gamespot are considered to be pretty reliable sites…
well.. i hope the energy of E3 comes now to europe (that one in barcelona next year or whatever)
X06 (the event you’re talking about) is Microsoft-only, the Leipzich Gaming Convention (or whatever that show in Germany is called) is for all of the publishers however.
oh.. yes that was what i mean.
well if its so big in europe i would travel to there
I think it could be a good thing. Don’t get me wrong, I will miss the spectacle. (especially after this years ubercoverage). But this could mean a drop in price for us gamers.
Prices are dictated by the market demand, demand is created through advertising, E3 “in it’s current form” is one big advertisement (usually un-televised). Making your product shine in a commercial shared by the competition cost big $ and is becoming increasingly difficult.
I think this years extensive coverage may have been the shows undoing. I believe the publishers saw more return from getting to the consumer than keeping the show “industry only”. I think they no longer want to share their comercial time with the competition. More focused marketing to the consumer will cost less (at least it should).
Now if everything goes according to my plan this will allow for a cost.
Of course this is just a pipedream, but I like to think the industry knows it is in need of some restructuring. But I digress…
-Oni
whether they are downsizing or cancelling completely…..it sucks!
This was coming all along. When MS started making bigger waves with their X06, they basically force the industry to compete with their own form of show. You will now see PS in Japan show grow even bigger, MS will have their own version, and Nintendo will be force to do the same (although they’ll probably stick with Japan based shows). I do agree with ONI23 about saving money that would reflect on game pricing…but how much is the question? The show its a tax write-off for these BIG companies. I will sure miss the show. And for the one that commented about not being televised… G4 carried about 6 daily hours of nothing but E3 show.
Gamespot has an update to their story at this link –> http://www.gamespot.com/p...ews/story.php?sid=6154935