If you happened to hear a loud slap echoing around the world the morning of August 1st, 2006, it was the sound of the majority of the video game industry slapping their hands to their foreheads in reaction to the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) announcement that they have officially killed the E3 Expo as we know it. Basically the largest video game trade show in the world is now dead and buried. Starting in 2007, the E3 Expo will change from a major media event with three exhibition floors and hundreds, if not thousands of demos, to the E3 Festival, an invitation only event with one-on-one meetings only and no exhibition floor. This new format will allow only very limited press access, so the public that eats up the E3 Expo, reinvigorating the industry time and time again, will no longer get the news and access that they so rabidly desire. Additionally they have chosen to move the event to mid-July, the same month as the San Diego Comic-Con, the largest pop-culture event in the world, which will distract the media and publics attention even more.
As stated in ESA’s press release Douglas Lowenstein, President of the ESA says that, “It is no longer necessary or efficient to have a single industry ‘mega-show’. By refocusing on a highly-targeted event, we think we can do a better job serving our members and the industry as a whole, and our members are energized about creating this new E3.”
As someone who has worked in both the publishing/development and the gaming press sides of the industry, I feel this is about as intelligent of a business decision as if Coca-Cola decided stop making soda and start only selling prune juice. For smaller publishers that don’t have multi-million dollar marketing and PR budgets, the E3 Expo is the best, and in some cases only way of getting buzz out about their upcoming products.
The rumors going around is that the “members” Lowenstein is referring to are the top few industry giants who spent too much money on elaborate exhibition booths at the 2006 E3 Expo, and later complained because their sub-par games didn’t receive positive buzz. Many of these publishers are so huge they hold their own press events, and can afford to fly members of the press out to their event. Destroying the small publisher's biggest PR opportunity will help keep the major players at the top without having to focus on the quality of their products. This is the out of site, out of mind philosophy.
In a time where the videogame industry is constantly trashed on the news and in congress, the E3 Expo has been one of the few times where all media takes a positive look at the business of making games. Now non-gaming press will all but ignore the industry and surely the impact of this change will affect sales as the public’s attention will no longer be on E3.