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[Petrae]

The E3 format is outdated.

Most of the impact of the trade show has been diminished and frankly I don't know if they can fix it. They have to bring excitement to the event in different ways. Now the companies can exercise a very good impact doing digital events. Unless there's something truly new going on that needs to be played, and can't be demonstrated otherwise, the event is largely unnecessary.

Hence the reason for the “influencer” pivot. It’s a lot like what GameStop is going through— forced pivoting due to rapidly declining relevance in order to try and survive. The ESA is hoping that turning the event into an “influencer fest”, given the power that influencers have currently, will provide a much-needed shot of relevance.

I don’t know if that can work.

 

[TheSadRanger]

History repeats itself.

E3 drastically tried to change to a more focused, smaller format a little over a decade ago, circa ~2007. "E3 is dead" every gaming news site stated. It then rapidly evolved back to the standard fare afterwards. E3 will be back, mark my words. There is too much of a financial investment in the next generation of games and consoles for publishers and platform holders to ignore an opportunity to sell excitement and celebrate the industry as a whole.

The days when E3 was being held in an aircraft hangar were some dark times.

 

[zeorhymer]

They've been done since they allowed the general public into the space. It's like watching a struggling business expand their menu/audience and in the end all that's left is an empty storefront.

 

[FMXVII]

I... don't understand, it's beyond me, how "influencer" just became a regular expression like this, without people noticing how wrong this is, I mean everything is in the word, what's wrong with people.

They're...










...under the influence.

 

[Plague Doctor]

This entire industry have been fucking clowns for years. When regulation comes and they take away their gambling piggybank, I can't fucking wait for the big players to collapse.

 

[Gargus]

I dont care about any of these shows anymore at all really. To me they are a waste.

Used to back when print was the only way to share game information and then later rudimentary internet trade shows were still important. But now anyone, anywhere, anytime can put pictures and HD video on the internet for all to see. Even a guy sitting on a toilet in a plane 30,000 feet in the air can watch live video on his phone. Trade shows are just pointless. Like the nintendo presentation shows they do, which Sony is now adopting is perfectly fine to showcase your products. And with demos you can download or watch gameplay videos everyone can sample a game.

I've been to e3 3 times in late 90s and early 2000s (still have a Polaroid of a dominarrix chic whipping me at the thrill kill booth) and yes it was fun and all but with instant information we have now there is no need to watch for a big event.