ESA Confirms The Death of E3
As predicted in the blogcast earlier this morning, E3 is being “downsized” and will never be the way it has been ever again. As I also said in the blogcast, before any of this was known, is that Sony and EA were top players in the pushing for this destruction of E3. Wow, what a shock there, all you had to do is look at how these companies operate, and it was very easy to connect the dots. Anyways, I’m “happy” to see that the blogcast was right on target this morning, and it’s good to at least have a confirmation that E3 has been murdered. Thanks a lot Sony & EA, when you drive gaming into the ground, maybe some of these people will wake up. At least E3’s last show will always be remembered as the one Sony made a complete joke of themselves, and Microsoft and Nintendo began to take their rightful spots as industry leaders. Sadly though, I would have rather seen Sony do better at E3, than see them pull this powertrip and effectively kill E3 with EA.
RIP Electronic Entertainment Expo: 1994-2006
Thanks to Ciros 360 for the news tip on the confirmation.
I also want to add something Matt posted in the comments section of the Blogcast post.
It is an undeniable fact that thousands, if not millions of gamers, look forward to E3 every year. This year was one of the biggest yet and generated more hype than any in the past (arguably). The bad part of this is that those companies that didn’t do too well (IE: Sony, EA, etc) provide so much backing to E3 moneywise that they have a controlling say in its existence and how things are run. Almost every company other than Sony got massive amounts of great positive publicity from the event. It is basically a bold-faced lie that there was not enough media exposure and that is the point. Media outlets not connected to Sony have hinted that this move is because Sony wants to have their own trade show with only those developers they approve of and control the media exposure to such an extent that bloggers and other independents are likely not to even be in attendance, eliminating the chance of such bad PR as we all saw this year. You cannot seriously say that it is purely economics. It is purely deception…….as usual.
UPDATE: It has been confirmed once again that E3 is now going to be a “Media Festival” in a LA Hotel, and will be held in July. It’ll have a capacity of 5,000 or less compared to E3’s 60,000. Taxi drivers, hotels, & restaurants in the LA area also have no idea how they’re going to make up for the lost money due to the expo’s death. For example, an individual taxi driver will lose $700-$1000 and has no way of making that lost revenue up.
July 31st, 2006 at 2:38 pm
Yes, this sucks ass. I had respect for Sony, but now i kinda lost it.
July 31st, 2006 at 3:21 pm
You were right, the podcast was on point. I feel like I am watching some big brat (Sony) throw a fit because they aren’t getting the attention they want. Anyway, kudos on predicting the future…how about this for predicting the future…where can I get a E3 2005 faceplate for my 360 with out paying over $75 bucks?
July 31st, 2006 at 3:24 pm
I’m not sure about that one.
It wasn’t hard to predict when you’ve followed Sony for a long time (and EA to a lesser extent) and after Sony didn’t get the spin and coverage like they wanted, they were done with it, they’re going home and taking their ball with them. At this point, Sony is still big enough to have enough impact that E3 will collapse without them and the developers and publishers that are still loyal to them.
It doesn’t hurt that Sony paid the ESA to do this as well. $5 million each, along with EA.
July 31st, 2006 at 5:39 pm
Wow, $5 million? Wouldn’t it have been cheaper to just set up a well designed booth/press conference (hell - it’s only one per year, it doesn’t hurt that much)? Oh wait, they tried that and failed already. Damn. On to bigger fish such as world domination. What? You say M$ already was told that was a bad thing to try? Damn. Well, at least Japan’s on our side; we’ll just keep a stranglehold on their gaming experience to ensure our existence. Anything Japan likes eventually the US likes, right? What? Most Japanese say that they won’t buy a PS3 because of price and features? Damn. Well, at least if Master Harrison goes down, we can all commit harakiri to retain our honor. What? Human beings have free will and won’t buy our stuff if it sucks or they don’t have the money? Damn. Well, I guess we could always hope and pray that Beta-Blue-Ray-Disk-Max-Mini-Memory-Stick-Disk-etc sales start to pick up………………
July 31st, 2006 at 6:50 pm
This Is Utter BullShit, I Hate That E3 Is Going To Be Downsized, This Is Going To Be Lame.
July 31st, 2006 at 7:40 pm
Thanks for the props. They can’t say E3 hasn’t been cancelled. Its no longer in May, its not a big booth affair, and its not called E3. Its in July, its all behind closed doors, and its now called E3Expo which is actually E4. Rest in peace E3…
July 31st, 2006 at 11:48 pm
It’s going to be called E3 Media Festival now: “Electronic Entertainment Expo Media Festival”. In other words, an “expo festival” that’s about electronic entertainment and media? That’s almost as illogical as Sony’s entitlements (almost). Why not just called it EMO (Electronic Media Expo) since that’s what it is now.
August 1st, 2006 at 6:47 am
This could be equated to the death of Christmas.
Fuck you, Sony. Fuck. You.
August 1st, 2006 at 6:48 am
“This could be equated to the death of Christmas.”
I actually said that line to someone yesterday when talking about this. Just sickening.
August 2nd, 2006 at 8:41 am
I’m gonna have to share Drew’s thoughts on this one. Fuck you sony.
I’ve gone beyond the point of trying to “get” sony or understand their tactics, or try and hope they reform. They can really just kiss my ass. Fuck ‘em.
Even my long-time sony-crazed sister plans on getting an xbox 360 (and no ps3 at least for the forseeable future). And if you knew her you’d know what a big deal that was.
Death to sony.