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[Dr. Wilkinson]

E3 died because there has been a desperate, desperate attempt to "unbro" gaming culture as much as possible, E3 was the ultimate "gamer bro" bash with the booth babes et all.

Since trying to move away from that image, E3 has increasingly felt pointless, remember stuff like all the babes that dressed as the DOA girls and even got in bikinis 20 years ago, at E3 2003? Can't do stuff like that anymore, so all of the fun of it is taken away replaced by boring marketing BS.

Going to E3 used to be a bucket list thing of mine, it's sad it got lame and then died, it's a sorry state on gaming culture in general now, everything was a lot more fun when things weren't so apologetic.

I don’t think I’ve seen booth babes since 2010ish. I really don’t think that’s the reason, I think it’s the lack of need for a super expensive elaborate convention space when everyone’s figured out how to successfully emulate the Nintendo Direct livestream model as vehicle delivery for news and not needing a middle-man or a $10 million booth. Or spending months making an e3 demo that either isn’t representative of the actual final product, or takes time away that the dev team could otherwise use to finish the game.

Sony peeling off of it in 2018 and eventually pulling out entirely in 2019, combined with COVID killing giant expo in-person events sort of both combined to be the final death knell.

 

[TheInfamousKira]

I mean, the lineup HAS been a bit lackluster, but killing yourself? It'll get better, E3, baby

 

[UnNamed]

E3 died when they removed the booth babes.

 

[Dr. Wilkinson]

E3 died when they removed the booth babes.

Nah. Toward the end there, like Half the people going were women

 

[Kvally]

Nah. Toward the end there, like Half the people going were women

Eh, some women are into that

 

[ResurrectedContrarian]

It was growing year after year until 2005's peak:

What could have caused the slow downfall beginning with 2006?

 

[Krathoon]

I remember a time when strippers were at E3. It got weird.

 

[Dr. Wilkinson]

It was growing year after year until 2005's peak:

What could have caused the slow downfall beginning with 2006?

This isn’t true, tho. Nintendo used booth babes at their 2010 booth. I remember because it was the year of the 3DS reveal and they were literally tethered to the women’s hips

 

[ResurrectedContrarian]

This isn’t true, tho. Nintendo used booth babes at their 2010 booth. I remember because it was the year of the 3DS reveal and they were literally tethered to the women’s hips

Nintendo kept using "tasteful" booth girls:

They were modestly dressed and very corporate friendly. Not really booth babes, but nonetheless Nintendo still got a ton of "yikes" reeing as pushback for having pretty women on stage.

Now, I'm half joking that killing booth babes killed E3. But in another sense, the removal of booth babes was the beginning of a new corporate mindset which gradually removed anything they couldn't sanitize under trendy diversity and representation themes.

So there is a definite thread linking the slow demise of E3 (and of most of gaming, to be honest) to this sea change in the corporate gaming sector, with their increasing adoption of agendas that are aimed patronizingly against the preferences of their actual consumer base.

 

[Knightime_X]

SGF is working for me.
I'm ok with this.