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Drop in exhibitors at PAX East 2014? Economics or backlash?

kyoya

Member
I did a comparison of PAX EAST 2014 exhibitors compiled and posted here:

http://www.sidequesting.com/2014/03...devs-top-this-years-pax-east-exhibitors-list/

Then I compared it to a PAX East 2013 guidebook and a found a drop in exhibitors for this year. I find this odd and kind of sad, so the big names that are not exhibiting at PAX East 2014 are:

Nintendo
Sony
EA Games
Capcom
Sega
Warner Bros Interactive (Turbine WILL be in attendance)
Deep Silver
Popcap
Mad Catz
Frima Studios
Twisted Pixel
Perfect World
CCP Games
Creative Labs
Asus
Moga

OniPress, the comic publisher is not going, I've never seen Bandai Namco in the past three years, and I may have missed some indie developers. I did not see Cards Against Humanity on that exhibitor list either or they could have a room setup somewhere. Am I missing anyone or even mistaken in this list?

What gives? Is this a sign of the times in regards to the economy, lack of games to show, or did the d***wolves and transphobia controversy related to Gabe/Mike Krahulik cause this drop?
 

Riki

Member
Maybe all the big companies decided they could have their own exhibition. With blackjack. And hookers.
 
Seems like there's a lot of backlash from that "diversity lounge" or whatever that was supposed to be. Perhaps that a reason why, or a leading reason.
 

Feep

Banned
Now make a list of publishers showing in 2014 that didn't in 2013?

Sometimes there just isn't a build ready to show, or the marketing timeline doesn't match up. It happens.

(In completely related news, Iridium Studios will be there totally picking up Nintendo's slack. You're welcome, Boston.)
 
I can't believe Capcom isn't exhibiting at PAX East 2014. Streaming Ultra Street Fighter 4 would be very popular both at the event and online.
 
(In completely related news, Iridium Studios will be there totally picking up Nintendo's slack. You're welcome, Boston.)
What does Iridium have that would pick up Nintendo's slack? (Not trolling, I'm not knowledgable in game companies and have no idea what Iridium's making/has made.)
 

Tenki

Member
With the other thread I thought only Nintendo were the ones to drop PAX East, but it seems almost every big company is doing too.
 

Hero

Member
Since it is a month later than it was last year I was wondering if it was simply too close to E3 and some companies would rather save the cash and 'bombs' for E3 instead.
 

Mesoian

Member
I can't believe Capcom isn't exhibiting at PAX East 2014. Streaming Ultra Street Fighter 4 would be very popular both at the event and online.

While true, it would still be a drop in the bathtub considering they have to compete with booths like twitch and madkatz who will already be streaming live. Other than Strider, Capcom doesn't have much to show.

I think while we'll see a pull back on big exhibitors, we'll see an influx in indies and small devs, probably leading towards an expansion of hte indie megabooth for next year. It's a new console cycle yall, the AAA studios need to prep for E3 and Gamescom.

I find this odd and kind of sad, so the big names that are not exhibiting at PAX East 2014 are:

Nintendo
Sony
EA Games
Capcom
Sega
Warner Bros Interactive (Turbine WILL be in attendance)
Deep Silver
Popcap
Mad Catz
Frima Studios
Twisted Pixel
Perfect World
CCP Games
Creative Labs
Asus
Moga

OniPress, the comic publisher is not going, I've never seen Bandai Namco in the past three years, and I may have missed some indie developers. I did not see Cards Against Humanity on that exhibitor list either or they could have a room setup somewhere. Am I missing anyone or even mistaken in this list?

What gives? Is this a sign of the times in regards to the economy, lack of games to show, or did the d***wolves and transphobia controversy related to Gabe/Mike Krahulik cause this drop?

Yeah, most of these companies have nothing new to show that hasn't already been publically revealed. I wouldn't start worrying just yet.
 

Toski

Member
Everybody is saving their stuff for E3, would be my guess.

Yep. At this point & time it seems the big players want to show their best against their peers/competitors. Giving in-depth announcements now isn't going to help your relevancy later in the year.
 

Mesoian

Member
Yep. At this point & time it seems the big players want to show their best against their peers/competitors. Giving in-depth announcements now isn't going to help your relevancy later in the year.

It's kind of good because Indies are going to be the core focus at a huge sold out trade show. Big time exposure for a lot of little guys.
 
Everybody is saving their stuff for E3, would be my guess.

yup.

last year was during march so more companies were there but more of them had games

deep silver had dead island and capcom had flop planet and remember me and ducktales
so I guess that's why half are skipping

Sony and Nintendo are the biggest offenders :/
 

Riki

Member
http://www.gonintendo.com/s/224791-...s-fans-will-have-other-chances-to-go-hands-on

Received an official response from Nintendo regarding PAX East: “Interacting directly with our fans and letting them play our games firsthand is a key component of our approach. That doesn’t include PAX East this year, but we will offer our fans a variety of opportunities to get their hands on Nintendo products in 2014. Keep an eye on our social media pages for more information about where we’ll be and what you can play.”
 
Could be a few, or all, reasons:

1) E3
2) Backlash
3) Economy
4) PA is no longer the new hotness

It could be all of those reasons, really.
 

jbug617

Banned
Has to be E3. The big test will be if they don't show up for PAX Prime

Evolve is confirmed to be playable at PAX East
 
Since it is a month later than it was last year I was wondering if it was simply too close to E3 and some companies would rather save the cash and 'bombs' for E3 instead.

Yeah, that's probably the main reason. No use going to a con like that if there's not much you're ready/willing to show off.

I highly doubt that PA's unpopularity with the more social justice-minded segments of the gamer populace has anything to do with it, given that not much has really happened/changed on that front in the past year.
 
None of the recent PAX controversies have really been big enough to be worth a boycott. I'd gamble that it's simply because East has always been in an awkward spot - smack dab in the middle of GDC & E3. Nobody has much to show for the immediate future - I doubt The Order or any of PlayStation's other big Fall releases are in a playable state. If they're just showing up with retail products or old demos - it might just not be worth the effort.

They really should move East further into the summer, after E3.
 

Moofers

Member
Move farther into summer and you're conflicting with prime in August or September.

I think nobody has the games to show and e3 is too close.
 
Everybody is saving their stuff for E3, would be my guess.

Pax isn't the kind of event where publishers are announcing big games to begin with so I don't understand this statement. It's more beneficial to show up at an event like Pax because the people there are consumers who are looking to try new games.
 
Spring is the only good time frame for PAX East. Summer you have E3 and Gamescom. Fall you have PAX Prime and TGS. Nobody wants to attend a convention in the Northeast in the Winter.

The first Pax East was already cold enough being in late March. I couldn't imagine dealing with it being even colder
 
East gets the leftovers unfortunately. Since the first year they've known this but it's more about the fun than new things being revealed.
 

John Harker

Definitely doesn't make things up as he goes along.
trending. less 'major publisher' people have been attending and have had smaller booths the past couple years anyway. it's economics, the ROI has been harder to come by, and companies are doing less games so individual games need to pony up bigger budget (vs splitting it with 4-5 products, you now need 1-2 games to cover the whole activation).

also not having the content, not everyone's ready to show off their next gen engines and tools and stuff yet. it's a cycle business, events. things will come back around. i wouldn't read too much into it.
 

Madness

Member
Just economics is my guess. Nothing really big or new to announce. Will save their stuff for E3 or PAX Prime. Who knows though.
 

Kyou

Member
Geez I feel sorry for people that can only go to East.

Though I guess we'll see if this just snowballs for Prime
 

Patryn

Member
I agree that Prime will be the real litmus test. If companies skip that, then you can begin to point to the PA controversies as the reason.

Geez I feel sorry for people that can only go to East.

Though I guess we'll see if this just snowballs for Prime
The indie stuff is generally the best stuff on the show floor at either PAX.
 

Josh5890

Member
Wow I can't afford to go this year so i was pretty down about it. Although after reading this thread I feel slightly slightly better, even though I had a blast last March.
 

element

Member
Economics and over saturation. Many of these companies have booths, but you are looking at $100k between the booth space, transport of the booth to Boston, setup fees via unions, and staff travel. It can be a tough sell at times.

Majority of these companies are West Coast based as well. So it is easier to move things on the West Coast.
 
Could it be a lack of games to show? I haven't being keeping much of an eye on upcoming next gen games but I've seen a few ppl say that many AAAs dropped the ball and don't have enough games in the pipework for 2014 /15 (apart from CoD and other yearly sequels that is)
 

Mikhal

Member
I think Capcom will be there in some form since PAX East is one of the ranking events in the Capcom Pro Tour. At the very least some there will be some sort of stream setup and maybe a build of Ultra Street Fighter IV for people to play. They did something similar in 2010 with Super Street Fighter 4. Capcom wasn't an exhibitor then, but Seth Killian showed up in the console freeplay room with a build of Super Street Fighter 4 and Seb from frameadvantage streamed/recorded footage.

Also, Asus has an afterparty on Saturday with PC Gamer even though they don't have a booth.
 
PAX to me is all about the indies anyways. Last year is when I had a great time first seeing Octodad, Transistor, Divekick, ect.

Microsoft is bound to have some indie games playable as well, their booth is usually pretty big, last year they had like 8 different games playable.
 
I did not see Cards Against Humanity on that exhibitor list either or they could have a room setup somewhere.

They've got a panel and they'd probably be set up somewhere weird, like how they were in the Kickstarter Lounge last year.

I always thought it was due to GDC being close to it.

Last year GDC started the day afterwards, there's way more of a break this time around.

The indie stuff is generally the best stuff on the show floor at either PAX.

By a huge margin. Grew from a presence that was basically just the PAX 10 at Prime '08 to the Indie Megabooth and probably 50+ other interesting indies at East last year. Huge exposure

Unfortunately, this is also the segment of developers that is most turned off by Jerry and Mike being shitty human beings, and there isn't anything like a good alternative in terms of a consumer-oriented game con.
 
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