E3 Canceled in Present Form (not a joke)

[Nev]

http://next-gen.biz/index.php?option=co ... 8&Itemid=2

[Julius Seeker]

Well, that's quite a shame, no doubt Sony is the main reason behind this seeing as how E3 totally destroyed the public interest behind their upcoming PS3. Nintendo and some divisions of Electronic Arts (Maxis in particular) seem to have really benefitted from E3 this year. It would be interesting to see which companies it is who are unhappy with E3. For gamers like myself, the event was as big as Christmas; maybe bigger given certain years.

[Eric]

Well, that's quite a shame, no doubt Sony is the main reason behind this seeing as how E3 totally destroyed the public interest behind their upcoming PS3.

........

[Imakeholesinu]

And I was thinking of attending next year since I finally could. Fuck....

[Nev]

Well, that's quite a shame, no doubt Sony is the main reason behind this seeing as how E3 totally destroyed the public interest behind their upcoming PS3. Nintendo and some divisions of Electronic Arts (Maxis in particular) seem to have really benefitted from E3 this year. It would be interesting to see which companies it is who are unhappy with E3. For gamers like myself, the event was as big as Christmas; maybe bigger given certain years.

I wouldn't be surprised to find that Sony was a prime influence behind this - however, and this may surprise some of you, I'm not sure I think their reasons for wanting to are wrong.

Sony spent MILLIONS on last E3 and put up what I thought was a fine, if somewhat run-of-the-mill, showing for the PSP/PS3. But because it wasn't as impressive as the other two console vendors', suddenly it was "a piece of shit" and "a disaster". They may have gotten less PR benefit from it than if they hadn't shown at all. Can you blame them for wanting to pull out?

As well, the article says that ALL THREE of the major console manufacturers decided that the PR benefit wasn't worth the massive, mounting costs.

I'm certainly sad. E3 was always my favorite point of the year. But the industry will move on, and find other venues...and who knows, there's a (slim) outside chance that they won't be grotty industry-only publishing parties, too! Though they probably will be.

(vomits)

Anyway, the companies can't take all the blame, either...a lot of it is attributable to every gamer who has ever taken the wonderful entertainment form we have for granted and spent a lot time shitting on the negatives, even though the negatives probably cost three million dollars and killed four programmers, instead of looking for the positives.

Which is to say, all of us.

[Lox]

I'm not all that upset over it. I've never been and probably never will get to go to an E3 (if they were to continue) so it doesn't really benefit me for them to spend huge amounts of money to create a spectacle for the E3ers.

I'm fine if game companies use this to provide more info and less flash. I'm paying attention for release dates and how games are progressing anyways.

[Zeus]

Oh well, guess I won't be going next year as I planned

More proof from Gamespot:

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6154935.html

[Ishamael]

Sad to see it go, but it's understandable. Given the current way the Internet makes everything obsolete 2 seconds after coming into existence, E3 probably just wasn't worth the huge amount of resources dumped into it every year.

I'm nostalgic for the days when it was relevent, but those days are long gone. It's really too bad because I think it's cool to have One Big Event to get everyone pumped over.

[Tessian]

NOPE, E3Expo will be back...kinda?

http://www.joystiq.com/2006/07/31/e3-ki ... ew-e3expo/

[Nev]

I might get to go to the new one at some point.

You guys won't, though.

[Zeus]

It's not officially dead, but it sure as hell won't be coming back like a huge, tech-filled expo we've all seen. They're going to downsize it so it's just about the products and business with no glitz and glamour to save money. Good for them, bad for those of us who had the ability to go. I doubt anyone who works for a game store can go anymore, it'll likely be just a developer-media event now

More stuff from IGN

http://cube.ign.com/articles/722/722197p1.html

[M'k'n'zy]

I have a friend of mine who runs a small local game store here who actually stoped going BECAUSE of what E3 had become. He said that when he used to go when it was more exclusive, he could go in, make some deals with venders, etc etc. It was an opertunity to do buisness. The last time he went he didnt even get to talk to the people he used to talk to because they were too worried that the stuff at their table would get stolen if they left it (which it probally would have been).

And actually, if I remember the article on GameSpot correctly, EA was actually one of the companys that WANTED it downsized. You have to remember E3 was never really ment to be the gigantic thing it has become. It was supposed to only be open to members of the industry and the press, and members of the industry didnt mean if you worked at a store that sells games, eg WalMart. For example in a company like GameStop, only regional management would probally be elegable to go. In a way the show got ruined because they relaxed who was allowed to go to the show as much as they did. My friend said that as soon as some company or another would announce a giveaway or something, the table would be swarmed by kids with backpacks trying to get stuff to sell on ebay. Just my 2 cents.