What the hell happened to E3?
By Ryan Block 
posted July 13th 2007 8:32PM
posted July 13th 2007 8:32PM
We've been down in SoCal for E3 since Tuesday, and now that the show is all closed up and the 3,000 industry pros and journalists invited to attend are heading home, we can only ask ourselves one thing: what the hell happened to E3? We knew full well coming into this thing that the mammoth, gonzo interactive entertainment spectacle of years past may have been lost to the ages, but the hollow husk of a show you guys replaced it with is drab, depressing, and generally disorganized. In short, we're totally bummed.
E3 used to be our favorite week of the year -- the trade show nerds dreamt of attending. You knew it was E3 season as GameStop and EB clerks the nation over began to claw tooth and nail for even the slightest chance at getting a pass to a show which has since been reduced to four rows of HDTVs in a janky hangar, and what amounts to a shuttle bus tour of Santa Monica's five-star hotels (where exhibiting companies set up shop). It was kind of like seeing a band 20 years past its prime -- it's somehow capable of making you wonder what you ever saw in them in the first place.
So you tell us, were the cost cutting measures that led to the show's meltdown worth it? Because as far as we're concerned, something is really wrong when G4TV has a vastly larger floor show presence than Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft combined. For an industry that's larger and more powerful than ever, we can't understand how last year's line to play the Wii managed to be larger than the entire 2007 show. No one at E3 feels like a rock star anymore. So we're spilling a 40 on the ground for Kentia Hall, $20m booths, throngs of costumed nerds, and gamers having the time of their lives while we all felt vindicated for loving video games all these years -- even if only for a moment.
Your friends,
Engadget
P.S. -Just in case you've already forgotten, remember what last year's E3 looked like? Here, check it out:
- Microsoft's E3 booth tour
- Nintendo's E3 booth tour
- Sony's E3 booth tour
- E3: South hall walkthrough
- E3: Kentia hall walkthrough
Every year GameStop and EB clerks the nation over would claw tooth and nail for even the slightest chance at getting a pass to a show
So what why DO you GUYS even care about this how does this matter to E3's change.?
NO ONE AT E3 FEELS LIKE A ROCK STAR ANYMORE
You guys a Bloggers (barely journalists) real journalist vomit when bloggers pass them selves off.
Your are not rockstars not even close if anything this years E3 was more than enough if not too much.
There are enough Trade shows like this Comdex X07 Tokyo Game Shows GDC
Maybe if all those were canceled and combined into one but there are enough mini paid vacations for the journalists here to go play videogames.
Admit it we all know E3 of the past was about after hours Drunken huge parties with girls dancing free food and free liquor paid by Sony Microsoft Nintendo etc
You guys are mad you miss it I understand. Cry babies
Success E3 07
Engadget can't do Anymore Moronic Sony Booth Tours or Nintendo Booth Tours and post them.
Companies Like Bungie realize its a stupid waste of resources to make DEMO for a 3 Day conference when they have alot of work to do and a deadline to meet.
MOST of the cool stuff is show Behind closed doors anyways Right!
E3 had received global condemnation last years nerd stampede of people running for the Wii was the last nail in the Coffin.
E3 2008 Will be smaller if not all behind closed doors no more go go dancer foam parties flashing lights babes in thongs handing out Zelda shields
Your are not rockstars
An event my High school buddies started a blog and filled out some BS credentials
The companies just don't need the press that much anymore they can get teh same attention and awareness using Xbox Live or the Web.
They don't have to throw parties for you guys anymore.
I came across 'What the hell happened to E3?' from a link on Digg. I am not a gamer, but am Dad to gamer sons. As an 'outsider' to your industry, I still read this article and looked at the then/now photos with SHOCK and amazement. The old E3 looked right on, and the one this year was freakin' PATHETIC. If anything ever deserved a WTF, this is it! Here is how I see it (if you give a damn): This is not like marketing a new deodorant for a few months to repetitively get a tune/jingle or a brand name etched into the minds of the masses. Gaming is an industry based on (first-and-foremost) FUN, shock-value, wow-factor, hype & advertising, and 'quick - look over here at what we've done better than those guys' attitudes. It's a hedonistic endeavor. But, apparently, the industry has suddenly forgotten all this and is more concerned with their profit margins for THIS YEAR and not investing any money in their future. How lame and greedy... They'll pay for their mistakes by lost revenues in the coming years...
It' similar to the state of "hair metal" in the early 90s. It had gotten so cheesy that something had to break. Along came a little song called "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and the rest is history. The only band from that era that continued to have success after then was Bon Jovi. Their like cockroaches; you can't kill them! At least we still have tons of CDs that we can use to relive our glorious youth (gone wild).
Guess thats why I didn't even know E3 happened until I saw some videos labeled as such. Then I just wondered when they did that. Many of you think it is a waste of money, but I think the advertising put out by it had to have been break even at least.
i really enjoyed this post! RIP E3.
WHERE THE HELL WAS SUPER STREET FIGHTER 2 HD??? FOR THE LOVE OF GOD!
I used to get excited about E3. I used to look forward to the up-to-the minute live blogging coverage. And I loved when I learned of something new.
This year there was hardly anything revealed that we didn't already know. There were a couple of new games here or there, and a couple of new devices, but overall it was lackluster. I'm not feeling any buzz, nor am I particularly excited about the upcoming releases.
Something was lost when E3 shrunk. It's no longer fun.
The banning of the booth babes marked the beginning of the end for E3...
I felt like I got laid, but didnt have the fun drinking the night before.
And all the girl did was talk about consoles sale's and my weight.
I know people like to act like their in the know, and understand what E3 is doing and the rest of us are just rubes. And thats just crap really. E3 to me was all about generating as much hype as you can for somthing and for the gaming companies to just blow your mind and say "LOOK AT ME!". I've been turned on to following a games progress because of someone I knew went to E3 and played it. That's just not gonna happen anymore.
For those who want to compare E3 this year to other boring trade show's like it's a good thing, go piss off and put your necktie on for work. The gaming industry is unlike anyother, and they should act like it.
It WASN'T just about the games, it was a celebration of the Industry. As geeks, nerds, gamers, this was OUR week. But to say the game aspect was getting sidelined is bull. UT2007, BioShock, Gears of War, on and on and on. What do these have in common? Exclusive details released at E3. Not to mention all the new tech showcased. 20m for a booth? Best advertising dollars you could spend. Honestly, I read a headline about the new E3 AFTER it was over and thought "Didn't they get rid of E3?". I didn't even know it was freaking on this year! I too had wanted to attend but couldn't, now I'm heading to SIGGRAPH in Sand Diedo on August 4. The computer graphics special interest group anual convention is now officially more exciting than E3.. More exciting than an "Electronic ENTERTAINMENT Expo". That's just sad. Our week was stoled away:(
Of course every hardcore Xbox, Nintendo, Playstation geek is going to know all about the upcoming games/systems/accessories coming to town. They will crawl over the web trolling for the latest review or screenshot. They might even tell their friends about the next big thing. However, get thousands of fanboys, press and few celebrities into one huge venue where everyone is feeding off the others energy...and you get a media and word of mouth blitz that is just not happening this year. Fanboys in LA are pissed that they can't get in, the media is unimpressed by fairly stale presentations. Who wins? Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft because they didn't throw their PR dollars in the pot?
I don't think it'll ever be the same. With the world of blog sites (like engadget) that include high-res photos and videos of products, perhaps people don't care as much as we did back in the 90's and early 2000's.
Hear that engadget? You killed E3! :p
E3 used to be an event that I looked forward to going to all year, and felt sad for months when I couldn't make it. Now? Couldn't care less. With one daft move, Tokyo Game Show has taken over as the premiere gaming convention of the year, and CES has taken over as the one show that most people long to attend.
I do tech support for the convention center e3 was at. One of the game manufacturers brought in defective xboxs. It was pretty sad. They borrowed consoles from a neighbor there, and they worked no problem. Needless to say, they were upset, I don't know what they did though, we never heard back from them
The biggest loss to me is the end of Kentia Hall. The new E3 has nothing like that. That was where the most inovative companies were. The little guys with the big ideas. I think the industry took the biggest hit there with the changes to E3.
well i can only assume what happened to e3 is the same thing that happened to the autoshows... unions..
when they are charging thousands of dollars to simply unload the truck (they charge by the pound) it's really not beneficial to have big set pieces.
basically unions "own" most of those venues and you can't wipe your ass without permission from the union steward and at least 20 other guys, the toilet safety technician, the paper safety technician the paper acquisitions specialist, the electrician to turn the light on so you can see where the paper safety technician is holding your toilet paper (3 feet out of your reach and laughing), the plumber to make sure the toilet is working and to explain how often people get killed in toilet flushing accidents, don't forget the security to make sure nobody walks in on you, the guys standing around doing nothing (the steward tells me they do something but i can't remember what they do), the 6 guys standing around talking about "that time they were working that gig and --insert random bullshit story usually involving either cocaine, a bodily function or tits-- and last but not least.. just before you finally are about to get the toilet paper out of the toilet paper safety technicians hand........ whoops. they've been "working" for 13.2 minutes. it's break time. sorry. you're going to have to wait till everyone comes back to wipe your ass and don't think you'll actually be doing it while they are at lunch because if you do work that is supposed to be done by a union guy they will all go on strike or even worse they wont go on strike, they'll just sit there and act like they're working.... wait. isn't that what they do anyway. so... now you understand why they are pearing down these shows.. if there's less work to do, they save TONS of money.
All Hail ESA, the slayer of E3. O yeah that nonsense about E3 being a big waste of money... A. If it was then companies would not do it year after year. B. If that was not the case then this years GDC would not have been about twice as big as last years GDC to help fill the gap of the now deceased E3.
ESA thought they could walk tall and carry a big stick. Now they can be their own sad king of their own sad hill.
E3 you shall be missed.
My name is SGT Lambert. Planning on trying to get into the the gaming business, after this 4th deployment. The comment I would like to add is how cool I think it would be to have a convention out here. I know it would never happen, esp. in the secluded place I'm at. What I do think is funny is that you people are complaining about how bad this E3 was. Come spend the summer with me. You would change your mind. I hope to one be a part of a company in gaming and help make a difference in the way people perceive the gaming world. I am not happy, as of right now, with the way people in the business are leading themselves to be betrayed. If I were the head of a company and my employers were acting the way some of these people are I would reevaluate the way things are being done. Does anyone agree with what I'm saying or am I alone on this one? Everyone out there helping to support us, the military, thank you from the bottem of my heart. Thank you for your time.
SGT Lambert