Doug Lowenstein, the president of the ESA, has finally announced the first concrete details of next year’s massively scaled down Electronic Entertainment Expo, which is now set to take place in sunny Santa Monica next July (11th-13th).
The show has been renamed the E3 Media and Business Summit and will mostly be comprised of invite-only hotel suite events. The central focus of the show will be a low-key display area at the Barker Hangar at the Santa Monica airport.
Commenting on the announcement, Lowenstein said, "By combining suite-based meetings with the software showcase in a controlled and business-like environment, we believe we will successfully fulfill our primary objective of giving high-level media the best of all worlds."
Lowenstein added that, "The new E3 is first and foremost about getting business done. When we asked key audiences what they wanted in the new event, we heard that they wanted opportunities for high-level meetings in a business-like setting, to play games, network, and socialize, to see major company offerings while also preserving the sense of discovery that is so much a part of E3, and to hear substantive presentations on the most important issues and trends facing the industry. We believe the event we have shaped will fulfill all those needs."
Daily conferences at the all-new E3 will feature "top executives and/or analysts and a Serious Games showcase."
No announcements so far as to which publishers will be backing the show, but we expect these to be made over the coming days and weeks and will keep you posted. Event bookings for the show start within the month, so expect things to become clearer then.
SPOnG loves Santa Monica and now we look forward to E3 2007 more than ever before, as we will hopefully be able to get all of our business done much easier and quicker than before, which will give us more time to enjoy our favourite LA pastime of long-boarding up and down the Venice boardwalk.
The show has been renamed the E3 Media and Business Summit and will mostly be comprised of invite-only hotel suite events. The central focus of the show will be a low-key display area at the Barker Hangar at the Santa Monica airport.
Commenting on the announcement, Lowenstein said, "By combining suite-based meetings with the software showcase in a controlled and business-like environment, we believe we will successfully fulfill our primary objective of giving high-level media the best of all worlds."
Lowenstein added that, "The new E3 is first and foremost about getting business done. When we asked key audiences what they wanted in the new event, we heard that they wanted opportunities for high-level meetings in a business-like setting, to play games, network, and socialize, to see major company offerings while also preserving the sense of discovery that is so much a part of E3, and to hear substantive presentations on the most important issues and trends facing the industry. We believe the event we have shaped will fulfill all those needs."
Daily conferences at the all-new E3 will feature "top executives and/or analysts and a Serious Games showcase."
No announcements so far as to which publishers will be backing the show, but we expect these to be made over the coming days and weeks and will keep you posted. Event bookings for the show start within the month, so expect things to become clearer then.
SPOnG loves Santa Monica and now we look forward to E3 2007 more than ever before, as we will hopefully be able to get all of our business done much easier and quicker than before, which will give us more time to enjoy our favourite LA pastime of long-boarding up and down the Venice boardwalk.
Comments
owarrak 16 Oct 2006 11:11
1/9
Boo hoo, looks like E3 is dead Fanboy wise anyway. Oh well TGS has always been better ;)
tyrion 16 Oct 2006 12:58
2/9
owarrak wrote:
Boo hoo, looks like E3 is dead Fanboy wise anyway. Oh well TGS has always been better ;)
TGS is a consumer show, E3 was mean to be a trade show. The numbers of fanboys who got into E3 by putting up their little blogs or by pretending to be developers is what contributed to the demise of the show.
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owarrak 16 Oct 2006 13:05
3/9
Trade show eh, i guess the fact it had the biggest consumer turn out means nothing then. Anyway MY opinion is TGS is better thats all.
Joji 16 Oct 2006 14:15
4/9
The term trade show has always been a jaded one. Yes, its open to trade peoples whom come from many different parts of the industry. From retail, online seller, to some that actually publish and make games etc. Even the press are a valued part of this wheel, and be you an amatuer with your smaller site or the likes of IGN you should still be allowed there. Are you to be shunned because you don't get as many hits as IGN? I think not, because once you start to create elitism more problems arise.
The games industry is very selfish, they don't want to share the new experiences of games to help sell them but at the same time they want our money to buy them.
This ''Your names not Danny, and your not coming in'' attitude is wrong. Do car shows not let in the public when they are their very targets who buy their stuff? Good lord, even bloody porn industry shows invite the man in the street, so where has this arrogance of 'good enough for my games but not my show come from'? The games industry treats its customers like second class citizens.
Look at other events for films like Sundance and you can see the balance that the small guy is just as important as the big fry. The games industry needs to check itself, before it wrecks itself.
I'm glad TGS is still about because the know the value of the customer and letting them take part in the big show too. Goodbye E3 as we know it.
The games industry is very selfish, they don't want to share the new experiences of games to help sell them but at the same time they want our money to buy them.
This ''Your names not Danny, and your not coming in'' attitude is wrong. Do car shows not let in the public when they are their very targets who buy their stuff? Good lord, even bloody porn industry shows invite the man in the street, so where has this arrogance of 'good enough for my games but not my show come from'? The games industry treats its customers like second class citizens.
Look at other events for films like Sundance and you can see the balance that the small guy is just as important as the big fry. The games industry needs to check itself, before it wrecks itself.
I'm glad TGS is still about because the know the value of the customer and letting them take part in the big show too. Goodbye E3 as we know it.
tyrion 16 Oct 2006 16:38
5/9
Joji wrote:
The games industry treats its customers like second class citizens.
A lot of other industries have trade only shows and there are consumer shows in the games industry. Just because E3 turned into a circus doesn't mean that it has to let in the man off the street and the fanboy blogger.
Joji wrote:
Are you to be shunned because you don't get as many hits as IGN?
Of course not, because then only IGN would get in. It does help, though, if you have a company and some staff, not just a fansite.
How many of the hundreds in the "Wii demo dash" were professional journalists? How many of those people even had a press pass? None, because a press pass let you in to the front of the queue so there was no need to run. They were fanboys and Gamespot shelf stackers.
In fact, I've an idea that the demo dash is why EA, Sony and Microsoft took a huff and decided not to go to E3 next year unless it changed.
There is a time and a place for a consumer show and a time and a place for a trade show. E3 was supposed to be the time and place for trade, but with lax door policies and hype surrounding the attendee numbers, it turned into a consumer show. However, that's not what the publishers and format holders wanted so it had to change.
way 16 Oct 2006 16:40
6/9
Decades ago, the Australian Personal Computer show went business/professional visitors only. Commodore put a home computer show on outside, I don't remember if any other manufacturers were involved. But the point is, the same could be done with most of these shows.
Why not have a business only show, and separately, a consumer show. Stick it out in some cheap area, invite the nation. Money could still be made by charging them a day pass, or a full show pass for double. Cutting consumers off from the potential excitement of a show performance is not the best.
Re-editing: My post text got swapped around somehow.
Why not have a business only show, and separately, a consumer show. Stick it out in some cheap area, invite the nation. Money could still be made by charging them a day pass, or a full show pass for double. Cutting consumers off from the potential excitement of a show performance is not the best.
Re-editing: My post text got swapped around somehow.
tyrion 16 Oct 2006 17:17
7/9
way wrote:
Why not have a business only show, and separately, a consumer show. Stick it out in some cheap area, invite the nation.
Sony did a "Playstation Experience" show right next door to ECTS a few years ago. They were both at Earl's Court in London, one in hall one, the other in hall two. It seemed to work quite well, but with the demise of ECTS, there was nothing to hang a consumer show on to.
The issue with that and the Australian Commodore show is that you had a single format show for the consumers, which isn't as appealing.
owarrak 16 Oct 2006 22:29
8/9
Well end of the day trade show or consumer show, multi format or single format show. TGS rules in my opinion.
way 17 Oct 2006 15:44
9/9
tyrion wrote:
way wrote:
Why not have a business only show, and separately, a consumer show. Stick it out in some cheap area, invite the nation.
Sony did a "Playstation Experience" show right next door to ECTS a few years ago. They were both at Earl's Court in London, one in hall one, the other in hall two. It seemed to work quite well, but with the demise of ECTS, there was nothing to hang a consumer show on to.
The issue with that and the Australian Commodore show is that you had a single format show for the consumers, which isn't as appealing.
Oh, Tyrion, I mention that they can even stick it out in the sticks, for all I care, because they might be too elitist to have it next door to their big and mighty trade show, and we can all get cheaper accommodation ;).
I agree, a single format show is not as desirable, collecting all vendors under one multi format event is.
I haven't been to one of these things yet, Japan is probably the closet, but my Japanese is not so good.
Some new handheld technology action:
Found some interesting things lately though. Intel is to use future Power VR designs from imagination technologies (why not interview them, they are close enough) for Desktop, Notebook, and Ultra Mobile PC (5inch plus min tablet PC's). Power VR announced Direct X 10 feature support first, not that it's goign to be too fast, a few years ago. If the UMPC (particularly a Apple one) were to use there Direct X 9 or 10 graphic core with 1Ghz plus CPU, how would that compare to the PSP, or GBA2? Q1 and Q2 cometh soon. I don't expect direct gaming announcements (unless the mythical Game POD comes) but CES and Macworld (if it still exists) might be interesting.