The Electronics Entertainment Expo, or E3, has always been a whirlwind of press conferences and game reveals, giving gamers a glimpse into the future of their favorite console's lineup. Even with the massive scaling down of E3, the big 3, Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony are all still attending, leading to speculation as to what each will offer. Gamepro has compiled some of the predictions from industry media and analysts in hopes of answering that question.
E3 has seen better days. In just two years, exhibitors have dropped from more than 400 gaming companies in 2006 to just 39 this year. Attendees for the 13 year-old trade event have gone from 60,000 to around 5,000 in the same two years. What's more, several high-profile members including Activision, Vivendi, Lucas Arts, and id Software have already left the Entertainment Software Association (the group that runs the expo) with more to follow, according to The Washington Post.
The culprit? Rising membership costs for less exposure at a smaller, revamped E3 -- not to mention the internet as a more powerful platform for making announcements. As outspoken analyst Michael Pachter puts it, "These publishers got rid of [the old] E3 so they wouldn't be spending money, and they suddenly find they are spending the same amount of money, but without the spectacle of [the old] E3."
Nevertheless, the show must go on. And a vast majority of top-tier players, including console makers, will still be attending this year. So here's what to expect from the big three, according to an analyst, a seasoned video game critic, reputable scuttlebutt, and a little bit of common sense. (Expectedly, Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony declined comment.) We'll have our specific and unbridled predictions as E3 draws closer, but in the meantime, chew on this.
Submit a Story
Register
Get Started
Webmaster Tools
Comments with -10 or lower "thumbs" are removed from display.
~Console fight!!!!!!~~ (just kidding)
now its just hanukka
I like bbb7002004's idea
As bad as the show was, most of these slams belong back in 2007 about size and the way the attendance is handled.
As far as the companies involved, it's still kinda funny to see the same statement being rehashed, I think everyone and their mother is trying to beat this dead horse as much as they can so they can be the ones who allegedly got it to you first.
How many times have people dropped Activision/Vivendi/id/Lucas so far in articles surrounding the ultimate doom of E3 08? I mean come now some originality would be nice or at least properly citing off things.
id is a dev house under the publishing arm of Activision, they've attended E3 under their space reservation for as long as I can remember. The likelihood that they'd front the cash with games like Quake Wars struggling isn't that high. Already we're taking 4 down to 3, then we're dealing with Activision who has already entered the final stages of their merger with Vivendi bringing the present day accounting to 2, then you bring in Lucas as a foothold and they're laying off hundreds of employee's right now. So the biggest hit to the show is really just Activision/Blizzard or whatever they've come up with at this point which is still a loss but they'll still be leeching off the show presence in LA this year with their own event.
There's a lot of functional issues going on at the show, but no one will know what has been addressed or not until the show blows past this year. As far as "bring back the bikini girls and open it up to the masses because the publishers should just suck it up" plea goes, I'd rather see them bring back capable staff to the booth floor for a hands on instead of joe blow the beta tester for the game that just got added 2 weeks ago and knows nothing about the actual game outside of "bro this game rocks bro like totally bro"