E3 2008 VIDEO GAME CONFERENCE
Event may try to recapture luster

Ubisoft exec: 'Now it's like a pipe-fitters show in the basement'

E3 is in a bit of an identity crisis. After drawing 60,000 people two years ago, it was downsized to about 4,000 people last year and moved from its usual home at the Los Angeles Convention Center to a handful of hotels in Santa Monica. This year, it returned to the convention center, but the feel was still small, maybe 5,000 attendees. The famed "booth babes" were nowhere to be seen.

The downsizing had to do with money (some of the biggest E3 pavilions were $6 million to $10 million) and the perception by some that the industry has arrived and no longer needs to trumpet its achievements.

But in talking to executives and analysts throughout the week, it seems like E3 might be poised to make a return of sorts to its glory days next year. To be sure, it will not replicate the excess of E3s past. But there is a sense that after this year's quiet affair, the event needs a lot more spectacle befitting an industry that is experiencing huge growth and record revenues.

"I hate E3 like this," said John Riccitiello, Electronics Arts' CEO. "Either we need to go back to the old E3, or we'll have to have our own private events."

Laurent Detoc, president of Ubisoft North America, concurred. "E3 this year is terrible," he said. "The world used to come to E3. Now it's like a pipe-fitters show in the basement."

Sega of America's president, Simon Jeffery, said he doesn't want to go back to the days when he would spend $5 million on E3. But he said there should be some more flash to bring back retailers, who have abandoned the show.

Mike Gallagher, president of the Entertainment Software Association, which puts on E3, is listening and said his group will continue to tweak E3 to the tastes of its members. He said it's likely E3 will grow next year, though it's unclear by how much.

"We just need to decide where the dial needs to go," Gallagher said.

Building E3 up again may help return some momentum to the event, which many people said was light on news this year. Analyst Michael Pachter of Wedbush Morgan Securities dismissed E3 even before the show began because of its timing in mid-July, which came during some companies' quiet periods. It's also too close to the fall selling season, so most publishers were not able to keep many games under wraps until E3.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/07/18/BUR811R133.DTL&feed=rss.technology

It might as well stay that way. TGS is where it's at.

Yeah E3 is a shadow of it's former self.

The reality is that the event was and has been mismanaged for two years, and there is little possibility for a third. The ESA went through an unnecessary identity crisis entertainment industries are about entertainment, and interaction with the consumer. While entertainment occurs the deals can always be ironed out in back rooms.

Nearly a dozen developers have decided to not renew their membership showing their dissatisfaction. That number is bound to grow, and will eventually reach a tipping point where there is no value left to being a member. Especially once the trade show finds itself neutered of attendance. You can have no show without attendance, and you can have no association if there are no members left.

The problems with previous shows that were cited as the reason for the new design could have been remedied without such a drastic change, and more to the point some of these problems were not a problem at all.

Sure the costs were astronomical, but they were on par with value provided. The result of the neutered show has only forced developers to increase their presence into other events with no clear priority. The result is its probably becoming more expensive not less, and as for smaller developers certainly the organization could have provided something along the lines of rotating booths. One small developer today, and another the next day. That is about effective management. Even a big screen television and a short thirty minute demonstration on the main floor could have given a small developer a cheap chance to hock their wares.

I agree the booth babes may be sleazy, but that is about a certain lack of creativity. Guidelines could have been established, or presence could have been limited so as to promote developers to try other creative avenues. As for all the insanity that was decried how is twelve hours open before the public for the press too rigid. That should be more then enough time for media outlets to cover the more important demos. You hate the swag ban the swag, but it all honesty what is wrong with the swag its advertising material to get the name of your product out there.

All in all there wasn't much wrong with the show of old. The show got consumers interested a veritable Mecca for gamers. The barely contained chaos was brilliant marketing in itself. Instead it is a real question of what exactly is the point the loss of human interaction begs the question why not just make a video and distribute it over the internet.

Anyway if its this watered down format next year. There will probably be thirty developers that will not attend, and it will probably not be televised, or have much in the way of media attendance. So exactly why spend any money on attending the event. I suspect next year the event will return to its glory days, or the event will have another name being run by a different organization.

Well there are enough other shows now, that weren't there or weren't as big in the past. It's no longer a 'one-show' thing. And I applaud that.

I hope E3 will be hot next year.

After this year and all the departures from the ESA, I think E3 has a better chance of being held in a gloryhole.

No doubt about it the ESA should probably make an announcement for a retro redesign within the near future. They should at the very least make a commitment to do so, or openly acknowledge the problem. Waiting till November would not be beneficial for the prospects of salvaging themselves or their event. All that does is gives them more time to hemorrhage developers will then have to be enticed back later.

I hope spaceworld returns!!