• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

How long does E3 have before its irrelevant?

J

Justified

Member
With more and more, new and improved ways for Publishers to reach their audience without going through the "middle-man (gaming press)" how long till E3 is a waste of resources($$), and is too redundant?

We are seeing companies having their own gaming convention; Nintendo and now EA having a reduce or no presents at all (along with a few others); and CES still there to fall back on to have the media cover new hardware, and other ventures,

I will say 2-4 years.

Pre E-3 hype is still there, but once it comes around the show is not living up to the hype like the old days (though is still decent enough).
I'm not saying E3 will not exist. Im saying irrelevant as in Publisher do not have to pay for floor space and setup huge booths,go through the ESA to fit in a schedule, and hold the big announced during those said keynotes

In the old days you had to go through E3 and CES to be seen
Click to expand...
 
Square-Enix and Bethesda just "joined" E3. Nintendo is still at E3 - same booth presence, Nintendo World Championship instead of a press conference.

Overreaction imho.
 
E3 is about more than just press - they hold business meetings there and stuff, and developers are able to checkout any new hardware and make contacts. Just look at Nintendo - they do their Nintendo Direct things around E3, and they hold media events all the time, but still keep one of the largest booths at E3.

E3 is trying to expand their scope as well, by letting the public in.
 
Nintendo hasn't reduced their presence at E3 in the slightest.

Not having a live pre-E3 conference doesn't mean they still aren't completely committed to the convention.

E3 will be relevant for many years to come, even as companies try different marketing tactics.
 
Justified said:
Pre E-3 hype is still there, but once it comes around the show is not living up to the hype like the old days (though is still decent enough).
Click to expand...

Did you skip E3 2015?

E3 will remain relevant for as long as Sony and Microsoft announce their biggest games and products at the event and since millions of people tune in every year I don't see them stopping any time soon.
 
It's like American Idol, it's getting less and less popular/impactful but a lot of people still watch it/get excited for it.

So it'll be cancelled after this year.
 
E3 is getting bigger and bigger. And what do you mean "We're starting to see publishers get their own conferences." ? It's always been that way.

Edit- If you mean Nintendo directs and stuff like that then. No one is going to lose sleep over Nintendo and EA not doing a E3 conference. Now if the likes of Sony and MS start skipping it then worry.
 
One thing mentioned on the most recent PS, I love you XOXO show is that the few years that E3 downsized and was held at hotels was that the larger media ignored it. E3 is significant in getting mainstream media out and reporting on events.
 
Also note, those huge E3 press conferences are actually not part of E3, they are just timed to happen right before E3 so publishers can announce their stuff and then immediately have access to all the media in one place at one time.
 
A very, very long time. The primary function of E3 has not changed, and will never change. The media circus surrounding the event may change, but that's not E3.
 
Justified said:
With more and more, new and improved ways for Publishers to reach their audience without going through the "middle-man (gaming press)" how long till E3 is a waste of resources($$), and is too redundant?

We are seeing companies having their own gaming convention; Nintendo and now EA having a reduce or no presents at all (along with a few others); and CES still there to fall back on to have the media cover new hardware, and other ventures,

I will say 2-4 years.

Pre E-3 hype is still there, but once it comes around the show is not living up to the hype like the old days (though is still decent enough).
Click to expand...

Did you skip the Sony show? Lol.

Anyways It will remain relevant for quite a while because companies will always need it. This industry literally runs on marketing and nowhere is better for marketing and advertising than E3. EA left that's true but they were shit at making E3 shows anyways but at the same time Bethesda and Square Enix have joined E3. Sony is also basically killing MS and it's because of announcements made at the show.

It will become irrelevant only when the thousands of people around the world stop watching it.
 
Justified said:
We are seeing companies having their own gaming convention; Nintendo and now EA having a reduce or no presents at all (along with a few others); and CES still there to fall back on to have the media cover new hardware, and other ventures,
Click to expand...

You DO know they have full booths and zones for them in E3 PROPER right? PR conferences aren't the only thing at E3.
 
Nintendo didn't skip on E3, they doubled down on it. They reserved much of their announcements around E3 via Directs, had still one of the biggest booths, had fucking championships 2 years a row, not to mention the usual press briefing.

edit: And Treehouse live broadcast.
 
Justified said:
We are seeing companies having their own gaming convention; Nintendo and now EA having a reduce or no presents at all (along with a few others); and CES still there to fall back on to have the media cover new hardware, and other ventures, ).
Click to expand...

E3 is not about the press conferences. It's a show with booths etc., that's the core of it, not the conferences and Nintendo has had big presence in all the years they shifted the conference to digital.
 
I guess the better question is how long before Sony or MS pull out of the show and just hold their own LA event where they can get fans to attend and have all the attention on themselves instead. People are saying "did you see last year's E3??" but they can do the same thing just throwing their own show and don't need the oversight of the ESA to do that.

It's not doom and gloom for E3, at least not yet. But with publishers basically deciding to forego the media and talk directly to fans with Twitch streams, it's probably not too many years away from either Sony or MS just deciding to throw their own event in the LA area open to the public rather than being tied to the ESA.

E3 is such a weird show now in that it kind of doesn't accurately reflect the current state of the industry the way something like PAX does. Everyone is pointing at the conferences as a reason why it is still strong, but in recent years the show floor has been much more barren than years past. On top of that there is not much of an indie presence unless one of the big publishers is hosting your game.

I expect it to continue to exist but to morph around different publishers pulling out and holding their own events.

massoluk said:
Nintendo didn't skip on E3, they doubled down on it. They reserved much of their announcements around E3 via Directs, had still one of the biggest booths, had fucking championships 2 years a row, not to mention the usual press briefing.
Click to expand...

Really the only thing that can't be replicated without the ESA currently is the show floor space. They can hold those events without them.
 
E3 will be relevant for as long as publishers want it to be. When the show started in 95, the internet was barely a thing, and over the years with all the advancements in ways to get info out there, the show endured, so just as others have said, as long as Sony, Nintendo and MS keep announcing things there, and keep exhibiting there, the show will go on.

I do know that E3 was a bit worried when Sony announced their first PSX last year, I had read that the ESA reached out to them to see if they were no longer going to exhibit at E3...
 
e3 had more to risk by changing venues than they do from EA pulling out.

E3 will be around for a very long time.
 
E3 is evolving, especially as big publishers begin to focus more on appealing to end-users. Retailers are somewhat less important in the Digital Age; so it makes sense to break away from the closed nature of E3 and instead hold separate parallel events that extend entry to the game-buying public as well as to snare a bit of the spotlight from the cacophony of E3 as an event.

E3 will end up like CES-- it will hang around and have its place for retailers and press, but will become more splintered in direct attendance by the larger players. That money paid to the ESA for large booth space can be better-invested in off-site events that are open to the public and are more focused on the publisher. The ESA will then have to decide if it will go public and follow the trend or remain closed as CES does.
 
aparisi2274 said:
E3 will be relevant for as long as publishers want it to be. When the show started in 95, the internet was barely a thing, and over the years with all the advancements in ways to get info out there, the show endured, so just as others have said, as long as Sony, Nintendo and MS keep announcing things there, and keep exhibiting there, the show will go on.

I do know that E3 was a bit worried when Sony announced their first PSX last year, I had read that the ESA reached out to them to see if they were no longer going to exhibit at E3...
Click to expand...
Sony have even said they like to save big announcements for E3. So I don't see them stopping the trend this year.
 
Dreamwriter said:
E3 is about more than just press - they hold business meetings there and stuff, and developers are able to checkout any new hardware and make contacts. Just look at Nintendo - they do their Nintendo Direct things around E3, and they hold media events all the time, but still keep one of the largest booths at E3.

E3 is trying to expand their scope as well, by letting the public in.
Click to expand...

This.

Do you think devs go to E3, show their game on stage, and then relax on a California beach? The majority of the work goes unseen by the public.
 
Hopefully a long time.

Watching all of the E3 pressers is one of my favorite times of the year, especially if theres any that are notoriously awful/cringe worthy
 
It's not going away. It's just going to evolve and adapt to modern trends. You say Nintendo has a reduced presence, but the reality is that their presence is bigger than ever, and they've been doing more to adapt than any of the other companies.

Live pre-E3 press conferences may be obsolete in a few years, but E3 itself won't be. It's a huge trade show lasting several days, not a small handful of 1-2 hour stage presentations.
 
It depends what you mean. I think when GAF thinks of E3 they think specifically of the bumper day of news on conference day, but I will say as somebody who has been going for the last 8 years that the show floor has definitely got more and more anaemic over the years. The disappearing of the biggest 3rd party booth by far will surely be felt this year, just as Konami beginning to step away, SEGA dropping their stand etc was - even if the coverage still came in other forms.

E3 will survive, I feel, but it'll undergo a metamorphosis, certainly.
 
Like CES, E3 will continue with or without the pandering to media or end user focus.

The pandering will probably go away again at some point, but the expo will remain.
 
Moving on from the fact that OP doesn't understand what E3 is, the fact that Electronic Arts gave up its E3 booth is a pretty big deal that signals that E3 as a trade show is not exactly on terra firma. Remember, E3 as a trade show actually WAS cancelled for two years, in 2007 and 2008. Its continued existence is not guaranteed.
 
I feel like this thread could of been "How long do video games have before they're irrelevant?" and you would get the same responses.
 
It will hopefully be around for as long as I get to live (and more afterwards).

Cynicists love to shit on it, but quite honestly E3 is like christmas in June for me.
 
Lingitiz said:
I guess the better question is how long before Sony or MS pull out of the show and just hold their own LA event where they can get fans to attend and have all the attention on themselves instead. People are saying "did you see last year's E3??" but they can do the same thing just throwing their own show and don't need the oversight of the ESA to do that.

It's not doom and gloom for E3, at least not yet. But with publishers basically deciding to forego the media and talk directly to fans with Twitch streams, it's probably not too many years away from either Sony or MS just deciding to throw their own event in the LA area open to the public rather than being tied to the ESA.

E3 is such a weird show now in that it kind of doesn't accurately reflect the current state of the industry the way something like PAX does. Everyone is pointing at the conferences as a reason why it is still strong, but in recent years the show floor has been much more barren than years past. On top of that there is not much of an indie presence unless one of the big publishers is hosting your game.

I expect it to continue to exist but to morph around different publishers pulling out and holding their own events.



Really the only thing that can't be replicated without the ESA currently is the show floor space. They can hold those events without them.
Click to expand...

This is what I was getting at. E3 used to be All things video games from "A-Z" now its dwindling down to just a few "Big" announcements, and not much else; relatively speaking that is

Kobun Heat said:
Moving on from the fact that OP doesn't understand what E3 is, the fact that Electronic Arts gave up its E3 booth is a pretty big deal that signals that E3 as a trade show is not exactly on terra firma. Remember, E3 as a trade show actually WAS cancelled for two years, in 2007 and 2008. Its continued existence is not guaranteed.
Click to expand...

I always thought it was a video game trade show for companies to show off their new products....??
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Steam to feature how much FPS you’ll likely have on a game before buying
Platform 
27
590
Soodanim replied
  • Locked
  • Poll
How long will it take for Gears of War: E-Day to be ported to PS5?
Poll 
0
60
evanft replied
E3 2026- Your 3 Must Haves
2 3 4
173
174
Sophist replied
[Jason Schreier] Will be a "long time" before we can expect Horizon 3
3 4 5 6 7
330
3K
Msamy replied
Before it's too late, I just have one thing to say before the fateful The Game Awards happen... It's important.
2
54
866
Sand Dan Glokta replied
Top Bottom