Sega Nerds

EA, Ubisoft and Sega: E3 not as good as it used to be

by Graham on July 21st, 2008

Reading several forums (including ours) all I read were complaints about how poor the announcements and games line-ups were for this years E3.  About the biggest shock news was possibly Final Fantasy XIII coming to Xbox 360, but even that didn’t seem to cause a massive stir in the waters of the gaming public.

And, it seems that it wasn’t just the gamers that were disappointed with E3 this year, some of the actual developers aren’t too happy either.

Speaking to the San Francisco Chronicle, Electronic Arts’ CEO, John Riccitiello said:

“I hate E3 like this. Either we need to go back to the old E3, or we’ll have to have our own private events.”

While Laurent Detoc, president of Ubisoft North America, had this to say:

“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.”

Even Acclaim’s Dave Perry voiced his concerns:

“I’ve got to agree with the comment by John about E3. If there aren’t dramatic changes to the format and staff, I’m never going again.”

However, while the show may not have been full of the glitz and glamour of a few years ago, there was a valid reason for the change.  Money.

Sega of America’s president, Simon Jeffery, voiced his concerns over this years E3 and also of the concept of bring back the old E3 saying that he would not like to see his company spending $5 million on a booth, but that the event needs to do something to bring back retailers.

Reports indicate that at the peak of E3’s popularity (among developers and consumers), games companies would be spending anywhere from $1 million up to $10 million - just to setup a booth!  I think even the biggest companies, like EA, would find that sort of cost unnecessary.

ESA, (the American Entertainment Software Association), the company which hosts E3, is not commiting to any ideas just yet.

“We just need to decide where the dial needs to go”, said Mike Gallagher, president of the ESA.

In the last few years, however, several big developers have left ESA, such as; Activision Blizzard, Vivendi , id Software and LucasArts.  If anymore decide to leave, and it sound like the biggest third party developer, EA, just might - then the show could be in serious trouble.

So while I’m sure we would love to have back the old show, I think it would be wiser for companies, and the E3 organisers to sit down and perhaps try to come to a compromise.  One that would be beneficial for organisers and also consumers.

One suggestion (off the top of my head) would be to allow trades people, (and possibly the public) to attend once again.  I’m sure they could keep the scale smaller than it used to be, but by letting the public attend - it would give developers a good chance to actually show off their wares and excite the public first hand.

Just two years ago E3 was drawing in a crowd of over 60,000.  Last year it was down to a meer 4,000, going up a bit this year to 5,000.  Of course, the majority of people a couple of years ago would have been trades people.  But let’s face it, it’s the traders (and public) who actually buy the games.

These events should really cater more towards their target audience, as reporters are given details on games and early previews by companies all the time.  So being given details and playing early copies of games at E3 isn’t exactly something that special for the press.

An event like this should really be a way to entice the actual gamers, get them excited and give them a chance to play games early - like TGS.

With no traders/public to entertain, the show didn’t even have booth babes this year.  While they may not be a necessity for showing games off, they at least provide those reading articles with something good to look at.  It’s just not the same without some form of eye-candy to perv over.

Oh well, let’s hope something gets sorted out by next year.  If not, we always have Leipzig and Tokyo Games Show.

[Source: SPOnG]

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POSTED IN: G, News