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ESA teasing a "big announcement regarding E3 2013"

Killthee

helped a brotha out on multiple separate occasions!
Update:
The show is staying in L.A. for 3 years. New thread is over here.

Here's a summary of the new deal, full article is up at The Verge.

The West Hall will still be up next year and it appears that the construction of the Main Hall extension is planned to occur between the 2013 and 2014 show.

While West Hall will still be around for next year's E3, plans for the AEG-backed Farmer's Field call for it to be torn down and rebuilt as an extension to the center's existing South Hall between the 2013 and 2014 shows, a construction project that threatened to impede the flow of convention-goers and the annual video game trade show. Once construction of the new extension is finished, the wall between it and South Hall will be removed, creating a single, massive hall.

The ESA also got the city and AEG to promise them that construction of Farmers Field that could affect access to the convention center would stop when the show was in town.

The biggest concern, that looming construction, was also settled. The city, convention center and the backers of Farmers Field promised to put on hold any construction that would impact the show or the ability to access the convention center in the days surrounding E3.

They also got a deal to get better hotel rooms for show attendees at a fair price:

While the construction was chief among the issues discussed between the association and the Los Angeles Mayor, AEG and the convention center, the ESA also had other concerns, Gallagher said. The association had over recent years received complaints of what Gallagher described as "opportunism" at some of the venues around the convention center. Some of the hotels and restaurants in the area were hiking their prices for rooms or swapping out menus for high-priced meals, when the convention center rolled into town.

"If E3 is the highest return on investment trade show in LA we deserve better than that," Gallagher said.

So among the negotiating points with the three LA groups was a request for more hotel access for show attendees and a promise that restaurants wouldn't hike their prices for the week of the show, something the city, AEG and the convention center managed to guarantee.

"We worked through those issues on hotel access to ensure we would have access to more hotels at a higher quality and a fair price," Gallagher said. "And they agreed to avoid the gouging that we had received a few examples of."






Original Post:

Saw this over at GT:

Danny Gallagher said:
Rich Taylor, the Entertainment Software Association's senior vice president of communications and industry affairs, wrote on his Twitter feed that he plans on making a major announcement about E3 2013 next week.



If I had to put money on this, the odds-on favorite would go on the ESA announcing a new home for E3 2013. The ESA and the city of Los Angeles have been getting into some heavy negotiations over the E3 venue, despite their long association together. The problem this time is the construction of Farmers Field that will almost certainly disrupt the flow of access to the convention center. It's not scheduled to be finished until the summer of 2013 at the earliest and there doesn't seem to be much wiggle room on the city's part.

However, there is a chance the two parties could have worked something out and Monday's announcement will reveal that E3 is going to spend another year in LA. The city might be able to promise a completion date at the first part of the summer and the ESA could agree to a slightly later date in the summer for their big show. I wouldn't put my future kid's college tuition on that betting line, but it is a slight possibility.


Here's an LA Times article from last month with a list of possible future locations for E3:

The Entertainment Software Assn. last year put the city on notice when it balked at renewing its contract to stage E3 at the Los Angeles Convention Center beyond 2012, citing uncertainties around the proposed remodel of the convention center to make way for Farmers Field.

This year the tone seems more urgent.

"We're still in discussions with the city of Los Angeles," Gallagher said in an interview Sunday night, "but we have a number of issues that still need to be resolved. If we can't resolve them, we are preparing to go elsewhere."

He did not identify which cities his group has been negotiating with, though executives close to the association who requested anonymity because negotiations are confidential said San Francisco, New York, Chicago and New Orleans have been among the candidates. E3 has taken place in Los Angeles for 16 of its 18 years in existence.

Among the group's concerns are ease of access to the convention center during any construction and guaranteed access to adequate show floor space.

"We need assurances on things like square footage, the quality of the space, the ease of loading and unloading equipment, signage throughout the convention center for marketing and sponsorships," Gallagher said. "We love being in Los Angeles, but we also have a show to put on."
 

Dascu

Member
Next E3 to be crowd-funded on Kickstarter. Higher reward tiers for more booth babes, betrayaltons and shocking announcements.
 
I kind of hope they'd announce that they're delaying it to an early July-late June, to conincide with the construction.

This hope comes entirely from four years of attending a high school whose last day almost ALWAYS fell on the E3 conferences. Meaning I'd be in the middle of a final when the only thing I desired was to be sunk into a couch, watching the conferences on six screens simutaniously. Even if it'll no longer be a problem for me, I wish to ease others of my pain.
 
Hopefully they will just out right coy the GamesCom model - Public section and a business section for press and developers.

That or they are going into a partnership with Penny Arcade Expo.
 
Ah, my first thought when reading the title was the announcement that they'd be moving to Jacob Javits.

(I wish... :( But yes, I think it was rumored for a little bit that they were moving. I forgot why, though.)
 

vireland

Member
Back to Atlanta plz

Oh hell no.

Atlanta was AWFUL for E3. Freight was expensive and it was HOT and very sticky due to humidity. I wasn't a huge fan of the venue, either.

However, my favorite thing about Hotlanta was the fireflies. I had never seen them in real life and we went to a restaurant called the 1848 House in the suburbs for a business dinner one night and they were *everywhere* in the back yard. There were 20 or 30 grown people from all over the world wandering around the huge backyard in business attire squealing (well kind of a cross between that and oohing and ahhing) and laughing like children after dinner. It's a great memory, but I wouldn't do E3 in Atlanta to do it again.

Chicago like the old Summer CES might be cool, but I think something like Las Vegas is more probable.

EDIT: Wow, it seems that they closed the 1848 House Restaurant and tore it down. What a shame. It was a GREAT place, and haunted, to boot. Here's a picture of it:

1848house.jpg
 
I for one hope it never returns to Atlanta. There's a reason it wasn't in ATL very long.

I live in Atlanta. It would be a disaster.
 

Killthee

helped a brotha out on multiple separate occasions!
Ah, my first thought when reading the title was the announcement that they'd be moving to Jacob Javits.

(I wish... :( But yes, I think it was rumored for a little bit that they were moving. I forgot why, though.)

The construction of Farmers Field stadium begins next summer and will continue for a couple of years. The ESA is worried about access to the convention center during construction and was considering moving the convention if they weren't able to get assurances from the city.
 

Forkball

Member
I was hoping they would announce that the ESA would quality-check all conferences before unleashing them on the public.
 

element

Member
LA or Vegas. End of story.

If Farmers Field goes forward, it will destroy the West Hall and will be rebuilt integrated into Farmers Field.

It has to stay on the West Coast just because of international travel and proximity to many publishers main office.
 

AniHawk

Member
It has to stay on the West Coast just because of international travel and proximity to many publishers main office.

essentially this. people have a lot of stuff just kinda stored away since they can reuse it every year with some modifications. the big companies can go further, but it'll be a repeat of the 2007-2008 years if that's all there is.
 

vireland

Member
Come on New York! Would love to see it in the Javits Center and I wouldn't even need to fly to the other side of the country.

Proximity of most game publishers to the East Coast makes any venue in the East (or even Midwest) unlikely. I personally wouldn't mind Seattle, but I really think Vegas or LA is most likely for 2013.

At the Las Vegas Convention center, there's a hole *just* big enough for load-in, show, and tear down between June 4th and June 23th, 2013. If they did the show June 12th-14th, 2013, it could work, but it would be very tight for the load in (not so much the load out).

July and August are wide open in Las Vegas, but I think that's too late.
 

Killthee

helped a brotha out on multiple separate occasions!
Updated the OP with an LA Times article that listed some locations the ESA was considering if negotiations with LA fell through:

This year the tone seems more urgent.

"We're still in discussions with the city of Los Angeles," Gallagher said in an interview Sunday night, "but we have a number of issues that still need to be resolved. If we can't resolve them, we are preparing to go elsewhere."

He did not identify which cities his group has been negotiating with, though executives close to the association who requested anonymity because negotiations are confidential said San Francisco, New York, Chicago and New Orleans have been among the candidates. E3 has taken place in Los Angeles for 16 of its 18 years in existence.
 
Proximity of most game publishers to the East Coast makes any venue in the East (or even Midwest) unlikely. I personally wouldn't mind Seattle, but I really think Vegas or LA is most likely for 2013.

Yeah I know. Just wishful thinking. I just find flying to be a massive pain (yeah I know, who doesn't?)

I guess I wouldn't be opposed to San Fran if that's a possibility. Would rather have it there than LA.
 

OryoN

Member
E3 twice a year guys!!








Dreams have infinite RAM. Dream big!!

edit: oh snap, beaten... damn you, shinkansen.3000!!
edit 2: on second thought, I take that back. Great minds think alike!
 

demolitio

Member
E3 is moving to Ohio because it really would go along great with our only other attraction...Amusement Parks. Wait, that'd make it the perfect place to announce the next Roller Coaster Tycoon game for PC! I solved it!

Come on now, let me live in my dream world.

In all reality, a place like Chicago would be nice so it's not all the way on one side of the country or the other.
 

Thoraxes

Member
Chicago would be nice. Given all the possible venues here, I think it would be a lot of fun, and also has a large international airport for easy access from all the participating countries, not to mention it's more equidistant.
 

firen

Member
Ughhh I can't get enough of these announcements for announcements!!!! There's always a big announcement!
 
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