Rumor:E3 Canceled?

[heavyness]

DAMMIT! my wife and i where planning on going next year... damn!


this seems weird, maybe someone said the wrong thing and its getting blown out of proportion? it just sounds like it is going to be downsized and not canceled.

but does downsizing still fix anything? studios will still work on E3 demos even if that means it messes up their development cycle. and there is still going to be a lot of games there, so the press will still have a hard time covering everything [although less people mean smaller lines to play games, so it might help the press].

[ndat]

I don't see how they can calculate the yeild of something like that... The amount of attention they get is absurd.

[Paul-Angelo]

On the bright side there is still GDC. But this really sucks! :sad: My wife finally got a job for a game studio that would have sent her there next year. Oh well, hopefully this is just an exaggeration and it will just be modified but not totally cancelled.

[PaulAdams]

http://next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3538&Itemid=2

I can see individual publisher events happening now, which sucks (although I'm more news sites will rejoyce). If we have specific MS/Nintendo/Sony/EA/Sega, etc. events we'll be drip fed information heavily influenced in their favour. E3 had become such a deal that news was online almost immediately, and with all publishers under one roof, each was trying to outdo each other. Now we'll have bull**** PR events.

I'm going to miss the streaming conferences.

[iconoplast]

I'm not entirely sure how all ofthis got so blown out of proportion. I'm waiting for the next article I see to have the headline of "E3 Cancelled Purple Monkey Dishwasher". What's happening is that E3 is tightening attendance restrictions. They're making sure that the people who attend actually have a reason to be there rather than having everyone who met someone who works at the game store down the street attending.

For those who aren't currently in the industry and were hoping to go, there's still Digital Life (http://www.digitallife.com/). It's fully open to the public, and the more gamers go, the more game companies will show up next time.

[heavyness]

http://next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3538&Itemid=2

I can see individual publisher events happening now, which sucks (although I'm more news sites will rejoyce). If we have specific MS/Nintendo/Sony/EA/Sega, etc. events we'll be drip fed information heavily influenced in their favour. E3 had become such a deal that news was online almost immediately, and with all publishers under one roof, each was trying to outdo each other. Now we'll have bull**** PR events.

I'm going to miss the streaming conferences.

i agree completely.

i watched the E3 conferences [Sony, MS, and Nintendo] and listen to what they where shoveling, but then listened to the bloggers and got the "real" news.

we will be spoon fed more pre-rendered "gameplay" videos. the big companies get what they want, a totally controlled environment with journalist there that they pick to be there. and their reviews will reflect that.

kinda sad, the biggest news from E3'06 is that people where waiting 6+ hours to play the Wii.... we will never see an event like this again.

[richcz3]

Simple. If enough big name attendees balk at the expenses versus the marketing benefits they may voice dropping out. If enough drop out or demand changes - show is suspended or cancelled altogether.

Given the costs and outlook for the next gen console transition - this may be the first official unified belt tightening in the gaming market by developers and publishers.

[Arrghman]

Ars (http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060730-7382.html) says that the cancelled stories are overreacting, but it will be "downsized" whatever that means.

I was looking forward to finally getting to go. :sad: Oh well!

[LiquidMetal]

i agree completely.

i watched the E3 conferences [Sony, MS, and Nintendo] and listen to what they where shoveling, but then listened to the bloggers and got the "real" news.

we will be spoon fed more pre-rendered "gameplay" videos. the big companies get what they want, a totally controlled environment with journalist there that they pick to be there. and their reviews will reflect that.

kinda sad, the biggest news from E3'06 is that people where waiting 6+ hours to play the Wii.... we will never see an event like this again.

You can't give a review based on pre-rendered gameplay or beta versions.Reviews will still be based on the games that are released to the public.Apparently they are doing a major downsize to limit who goes in,since in in previous years(not sure about 06) they let in anyone who was a "journalist".Hopefully that will be good since the people that should be there wont need to wait 6 hours to play a 5 min demo.

[PhilOsirus]

E3 will most likely be cancelled for 2007 if the rumor is true, then return in another form if any in 2008.

The simple reason why this is likely true is because E3 is good for the industry as a whole, but not for individual companies (other than Nintendo, Sony and MS, but they probably don't like the idea of being in the same room anymore:p ). The only thing I remember from the last E3 is MGS4's trailer, Final Fantasy XII coming for PS3, Halo 3 being in development for the 360, and the Wii name. That's all. 99% of individual titles don't stand out at E3, only the industry itself does. I believe the later is good and we need an event every year that brings attention to the whole industry, but I understand why most companies would like to get things going their way. Nintendo and Square-Enix have been doing this for some time now and it brings more attention to their games without having to stand next to the competition.

I do wonder if we will still have a big event like E3 was tho, we need something like it.

[heavyness]

You can't give a review based on pre-rendered gameplay or beta versions.Reviews will still be based on the games that are released to the public.Apparently they are doing a major downsize to limit who goes in,since in in previous years(not sure about 06) they let in anyone who was a "journalist".Hopefully that will be good since the people that should be there wont need to wait 6 hours to play a 5 min demo.

sorry, i meant PREVIEW. but the general public's mind is already decided after seeing 1 picture/video... pre-rendered or not.

[Cyborgguineapig]

The end has begun...

[LiquidMetal]

sorry, i meant PREVIEW. but the general public's mind is already decided after seeing 1 picture/video... pre-rendered or not.

Haha that is so true, especailly with teenagers!Do you need to work in the industry for GDC also?If not,this might be the next "E3".Or companies might just ditch the multi million dollar booths and go for smaller meetings.

[ScottC]

This is what they get for cutting back on the booth babes...

[Artbot]

The liklihood that E3 will become nothing but tightly controlled PR events is strong, but I think this is generally good for companies. If it does anything to control the annual chaos that is getting ready to show your game at E3, I'm all for it. I can't even remember how many projects I've been on where production came to a grinding halt while we cobbled together some dog & pony show for E3. It was sometimes advantageous for the company - as long as the game was nearly done and looked and played great. It's ultimately good for the product if it's well-received, but hell on the dev team no matter what.

[SpiralFace]

Seeing how at this point this is all still just a rumor, I'm not going to go jumping to conclusions till something official comes out.

I personaly don't care Iether way.

I have seen my friends loose more sleep and free time for the E3 crunch then I see them crunching to get the Gold masters out the door. And I'm sure many developers will see this as a sigh of releaf as it will take a HUGE burdon off of them to deliver the goods even when a project is in the very early stages of production.

I myself am always ticked off that a majoraty of the people that I end up seeing at E3 are all of the employees of the BlockBusters, and Best Buys from around the country, and rarely see anyone in the industry outside of their booths unless they are press (In my opinion the most important people there.) I personaly think those people have no right to be clogging up the lines over there from the press that unfortunatly as a result have to sit back and wait their turn. I feel for anyone that works for the press that needs to go through that personal nightmare for their work.

On the other hand, as it is a "trade" show, I do see alot of suits in there that I have a very strong suspision have no connection to the industry (unless you count their Stock options :)) And I do notice how they simply sit back and watch the floor where all the sheeppp..I mean kids from Blockbuster go.

I do think that E3 should be around in some way or another, as it is a very exiting place to be, as well as a very good way to spread hype about everything that is comming out, although I think the way they present it has MANY problems at the moment, and whatever they decide to do, I hope they streamline the presentation as well as the admition (As I fail to see how running an internet Blog site or being a worker bee at a Blockbuster qualify as an "industry" job.)

[LiquidMetal]

Looks like the old E3 is gone.Now its the E3Expo.

http://www.joystiq.com/2006/07/31/e3-killed-reborn-as-new-e3expo/

[marc001]

I have a personal stake in E3. I work with the Sony Playstation booth designer.
This job was a large source of income for me.
I was looking forward to working on next years Playstation E3 booth.

[SpiralFace]

I have a personal stake in E3. I work with the Sony Playstation booth designer.
This job was a large source of income for me.
I was looking forward to working on next years Playstation E3 booth.

Well who knows, from the sound of this, there will still be booths to be seen, its just going to be a smaller, more personal experiance. So they may not be as lavish as before, but I'm sure they are going to be there in some form or another. But I do feel for you and everyone that is effected by this.

But as far as the Expo overall, I whould need to see how this works before I make an honest opinion. I like how they are "cutting" back on admitance, (one of my main gripes with how E3 was run in the past) but am wondering if the developers will even be included in this. Right now they make it sounds like only producers, marketers, and press people will be going there, and that will make me just alittle sad. But seeing as how the past 2 E3's to come around I could'nt go because of deadlines, I'm sure this still won't affect me much.

I guess we all will see.

[talos72]

Don't be surprised if SIGGRAPH would either disappear or seriously downsize in the near future also. These events are pretty costly for everyone involved (as in millions of dollars), and the cost of putting them up has been increasing regularly. For many game and software companies it comes down to dimishing returns: I spend more and more on booths and PR, but my sales profits aren't keeping up...simple math.

[drdespair]

Isn't this something along the lines of Aint It Cool stuff, where basically the developers spends years developing software only to have it labeled crap before its even released, and the mindless crowds dont spend their hard earned cash on them.....

[madgodz]

I also have a vested interest in E3...

all the weekends and daily crunch just to halt developement and slam together a dog and pony show. try convincing a publisher that a demo of this magnitude should be in the schedule as a regular milestone...

I'm glad to see it reduced or shutting down altogether. ;)

I think the ACM has clearer goals for siggraph than the ESA did for E3. I think siggraph will remain about graphics with the heart of the program being the research and acedemic work moving the field forward instead of a marketing orgy.

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