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Game Over for E3?
As first reported by trade magazine MCV and on Gamespot and on Next Generation, an announcement is expected today that the massive Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) will be canceled or downsized for the coming year.
If it’s true, it will come in the same year that all three major console manufacturers, Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft, touted their next-generation systems at this May’s E3 in Los Angeles.
The event, which since 1995 has been a showcase for videogame developers and publishers and which attracts a growing cadre of celebrities, has grown into a costly, mass-media affair.
The rumors are that some of the major exhibitors are finding the cost of putting on an attention-getting show at E3 is not bringing in the payoff on their investment.
If I had to venture a guess, I’d say two companies may be responsible for the no confidence vote in E3. Both Sony and Electronic Arts had lackluster showings at E3 this year and both spent likely millions on their respective presentations. Sony’s wallet-busting price announcement for the upcoming PlayStation3 and E3’s relatively weak lineup at E3 this year (which consisted largely of sports games and a few military sims and one potentially great Will Wright game) both generated bad buzz among the gaming press. If you were pouring millions of dollars into a once-a-year event only to buy a massive backlash against your company, you might think twice, too.
An announcement from E3’s parent company, the Entertainment Software Association, should be coming soon. We’ll let you know what happens.
3:05 p.m.: UPDATE — The ESA has issued its announcement, promising an “evolution” of the conference that indeed sounds like a much-scaled-down version of the flashing lights show we know as E3.
It’s far too early to say whether this is good news or bad news for the videogame industry, but whatever it is that the E3 show has been, it’s never been an intimate, laid-back affair. But there are plenty of smaller games conferences that are less high-glitz (The Game Developers’ Conference, the Austin Game Conference).
What it sounds like, really, is that the games industry just lost its Super Bowl.
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