July 11, 2008

E3 2008: Pre-Show Thoughts
By Louis Bedigian

Why the show is still exciting and what should happen in 2009.

I've heard countless complaints from gamers who wish E3 would go back to the overblown extravaganza it was in 2006 and years prior. They look at it the same way I do: not as a journalist but as a gamer who loved what was best described as the largest and most exciting arcade on Earth.

Most journalists didn't think of it as such, primarily because they were working too much to enjoy it. I'm not going to get into the time constraint trauma, media room madness or bus riding blasphemy (a problem the ESA alleviated by moving the show away from hotels and back to the LA Convention Center this year) we journalists have to deal with. But I do want to discuss the importance and excitement of this year's show, as well as my hopes (if not a prediction) for the future.

A look at the teeny-tiny E3 07 showcase at the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica.

The Truth Is Out There

No, that wasn't an X-Files reference, but rather a reference to the question marks currently surrounding the most anticipated games: Resident Evil 5, Gears of War II, Resistance II, The Force Unleashed, and Soulcalibur IV, to name a few. Each of these games (along with a zillion others) will finally get a more significant showing. Many will be playable, giving us a chance to dissect the years of effort that have gone into these much-hyped properties. Most importantly, we'll get the first glimpse of brand-new games that no one knows about until the moment they're unveiled.

It's these moments that make E3 a very exciting event. And even though I preferred the old format (with enormous booths and an overload of sights and sounds), the smaller show does have its perks. With fewer booths to hit and fewer crowds to plow through, we'll have more time to spend with each game. This was instantly apparent during last year's show when I was able to score hands-on time with several games per publisher, and not just for 30 seconds each. Under the new format, publishers had more time and space to dedicate to each journalist, allowing us to take advantage of the extra time we were given.

That didn't mean E3 wasn't a challenge – to a journalist, it is perhaps one of the most challenging "games" of all. After seeing and/or playing a bunch of titles (of which you took many notes on), you have to find a way to sort it all out and turn your thoughts into something readable. And you have to do it fast -- very fast in between meetings and long after the show closes each night. It's not like the average business meeting where you work during the day and sleep at night. At E3, you just work. Sleep is something you hope you have time for when you're done.

Another look at the Barker Hangar in 07. Oh the memories...

And for me it's always been worth it. The new format is less hectic, but I would jump at the chance to go back to the good old days. I guess that's where Penny Arcade Expo steps in, and not for the press but for every gamer that wants to attend. Now that PAX 08 has scored nearly every major publisher in the industry, it has unofficially become the "E3 for gamers," even more so than last year's E for All, an exciting but small, consumer-based version of the Electronic Entertainment Expo. Thus far, E for All 08 has confirmed just one publisher's attendance: Microsoft. Here's hoping they beef up their lineup before the show begins in early October.

If history is to repeat itself, these consumer shows will be a partial offshoot of E3. In other words, some of the demos at E3 08 could end up at PAX and/or E for All. I wish I could tell you which, but I doubt the publishers even know at this point. If a game is due for release in October or November, its chances of appearing at a consumer show are fairly high. But unless some publisher wants to "pull a Konami" and offer a special treat (as Konami did last year with the MGS4 demo), you probably won't get a crack at too many 2009 releases. Let's keep our thumbsticks crossed and hope we get lucky.

Will daylight be scary in Resident Evil 5? Or does Capcom have a dark twist planned for the game?

Can E3 Survive Another Year?

That's what everyone wondered at this time last year when E3 07 began. The question has been even more prominent this year ever since Activision and a couple others pulled out, making the show even smaller than it was last year.

As one TV reporter told me at a game event last summer, "E3 isn't the same anymore. We no longer have anything to shoot." Without anything exciting to put on tape, their TV and Internet video coverage is significantly less exciting than what it was in the years prior to E3's shrinkage, an ailment I like to call TSD: Trade Show Dysfunction.

Some journalists argue that at the end of the day, the potential dollars earned from the old E3's (every year before 2007) publicity just aren't worth it. They say that money could be better spent on traditional advertising methods. But gaming isn't a traditional medium. Games don't sell well because of a snazzy TV, Web or magazine ad campaign – they sell well because they're well-previewed. That's what makes our medium so unique: good games, and especially the really big games (good or bad), sell the most based on what gamers read, watch or hear long before the game is released. This includes game trailers, preview articles, interviews, news bits, and anything else the industry can get the press to repeat.

"Oh, but you don't need E3 for that." Of course you don't. Game publishers have annual "gamers' days" (the name of which I find hugely ironic considering they are only for the press, not all gamers) where they promote one or more titles to the press. But regardless of what anyone tells you, the announcement that "Nintendo blew us away at their gamers' day" just doesn't have the same effect as "Nintendo blew us away at this year's E3." To blow us away at E3, that means they competed with everyone else and still wowed attendees. To blow us away at their own show means they were impressive...compared to what?

It's that insane competition, many journalists argued, that made the old E3 obsolete. (That, and the massive crowds and enormous expenses, they whined.) But if competition was really an issue, why be in the game industry at all? The overly crowded fall gaming season still exists. The growing spring season exists. And this June, we saw a plethora of titles released around the mammoth Konami hit, Metal Gear Solid 4 (a game that, as every fan can tell you, was sold on everything Konami said and showed before its release – the TV ads were just a reminder that it had finally come out).

Metal Gear Solid 4 leveraged the power of multiple E3s, Tokyo Game Shows and one E for All (and other press and consumer events) to promote the game well before its release.

Not only that but, back in the old days, E3 was so big and well known that its name alone could increase magazine sales, TV viewership and Web site traffic. No matter how effective, gamers’ days do not hold that same power. At the old E3, there was something for everyone. If you were an Xbox loyalist, MS was there. If all you cared about was PlayStation, Sony was there and so on. You don't get that kind of variety (or gamer attention) from a one-publisher-only gamers’ day. So while publishers may get more individual attention from the press at their own events, they're getting less overall attention from regular gamers -- their biggest customer base.

Furthermore, the fact that Penny Arcade Expo has gotten support from nearly every major publisher shows that game companies really don't mind competing for gamer attention, and apparently value the publicity a major event provides. At the very least they seem happy just to get their name (and their games) out there in a crowd of thousands. Believe it or not, that's what the old E3 – with its 50,000+ attendees each year – used to accomplish, albeit without the official "open to the public" status.

So why not go back to the old E3, merge with a bigger show, create a brand-new show, or something else along those lines? That's the million dollar question: why not make the change? Gamers crave it. Developers like Hideo Kojima have been dying for it. Publishers like Gamecock have all but admitted that's what they want to happen. Gamecock's own event – which is being held concurrently with but separately from E3 – is being referred to as the "BE-3 Initiative."

Sounds like we need to get E3 a prescription for some little blue pills.

For All E3 2008 News and Announcements

Share | Digg This | Glink It

---