Videogames trade organ, MCV, has just confirmed to us (and the rest of the ‘trade’) that the formerly dead E3 show is now alive again, albeit without a name.
According to the press release, “International Data Group will launch a new interactive entertainment exposition for consumers at the Los Angeles Convention Centre next year. The new event, endorsed by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), will be held October 18-20, 2007, and will be open to the general public.
"A consumer-focused event just before the holiday buying season will help game buyers chart a course as they make their holiday purchasing decisions," said Mary Dolaher, executive vice president of IDG World Expo. "This will finally give game enthusiasts an event of their own, and will be an excellent opportunity for them to test-drive the hottest game products in one place at one time during the key fall buying season."
"There has long been interest in a consumer-focused event for the video game industry, and we are pleased to lend our endorsement to IDG's effort to create a new, singular event for gamers," said ESA President Douglas Lowenstein. "IDG's event will chart a new course, offering gamers the chance to get their hands directly on some of the latest game products before they hit the store shelves for the holidays."
When speaking to MCV, however, there appeared to be some confusion regarding the ‘on message’ level of communication coming out of IDG:
Pedantic, us? Or merely pointing up the possibility that the new show is not yet fully formed in the minds of those selling it? You decide!
According to the press release, “International Data Group will launch a new interactive entertainment exposition for consumers at the Los Angeles Convention Centre next year. The new event, endorsed by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), will be held October 18-20, 2007, and will be open to the general public.
"A consumer-focused event just before the holiday buying season will help game buyers chart a course as they make their holiday purchasing decisions," said Mary Dolaher, executive vice president of IDG World Expo. "This will finally give game enthusiasts an event of their own, and will be an excellent opportunity for them to test-drive the hottest game products in one place at one time during the key fall buying season."
"There has long been interest in a consumer-focused event for the video game industry, and we are pleased to lend our endorsement to IDG's effort to create a new, singular event for gamers," said ESA President Douglas Lowenstein. "IDG's event will chart a new course, offering gamers the chance to get their hands directly on some of the latest game products before they hit the store shelves for the holidays."
When speaking to MCV, however, there appeared to be some confusion regarding the ‘on message’ level of communication coming out of IDG:
“IDG has signed an exclusive deal with the ESA to run a consumer-oriented video games trade show. It will take place in Los Angeles in October ’07,” an IDG spokesperson told MCV.
Pedantic, us? Or merely pointing up the possibility that the new show is not yet fully formed in the minds of those selling it? You decide!
Comments
Moschops 8 Nov 2006 21:22
1/2
"consumer-oriented video games trade show"
I like it - sounds just the sort of contradictory bullshit that comes out of the clueless gobs of so many PR dorks.
So, in summary, we've no f**king idea what's going on.
I like it - sounds just the sort of contradictory bullshit that comes out of the clueless gobs of so many PR dorks.
So, in summary, we've no f**king idea what's going on.
SPInGSPOnG 9 Nov 2006 07:27
2/2
Moschops wrote:
So, in summary, we've no f**king idea what's going on.
True. But I see it thus:
We'll have a small, crap, invitation-only show that takes place in Santa Monica hotel rooms, and which will make all in attendance feel like they are in the process of something seedy like a drug deal, or assignation with a prostitute. This will fall flat on its face after two years, maybe fewer.
We'll ALSO have the "Old E3". But in October, at the loathesome LA Conference centre, a baking parched concrete edifice in a barren and hateful part of a smoggy sprawling hell-hole. But this time around, all the 16-year-olds won't have to pretend they are CEO of Poly-Global-Megacom, and will instead be able to admit that they live at home and play World of Warcraft and masturbate a lot.
What they SHOULD have done was combine the two (economies of scale etc) put it back in Las Vegas, so there would be something for these kids' parents to do if they take them there, and priced the thing in a way the meant the exhibitors as well as the organisers could roll in clover from the profits.
The problem with E3 was that is was a way for the organisers to make huge profits while the publishers and platform holders paid out huge stand costs, and the press paid out huge attendance costs, and the 16 year old CEOs paid out huge entrance costs. It was not well set up for any of the attendees, the press had to fight thgoruh thousands of sweaty eagre kids, and the kids had to attend a show aimed at trade, rather than one aimed at them. The organisers sold the whole thing out to IGN and GameSpot from a coverage point of view - so those loathesome corporate cesspits had all the details of everything before the show opened, so there was actually no REAL point for the rest of the world's press to attend.
Everyone was getting shafted.