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E3 is no more

next-gen.biz — Senior industry sources have revealed to Next-Gen.Biz that the E3 industry event, in its present form, has been cancelled for next year and the foreseeable future.

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  • KJSatz, on 10/12/2007, -5/+38Sucks. At least the last one was pretty hardcore, what with the PS3 and Wii announcements.
    • cam2009, on 10/12/2007, -3/+24Good place to end it. The next at least 5 years would have nothing except new games, and it would take something huge to beat the wii-mania, possibly the best e3 yet. I am surprised, though. it says companys think the cost isn't worth the return, but I don't think thats always the case, especially nintendo. I can see small companies being overlooked. Hopefully we'll see the return of spaceworld, and things like that.
    • timdorr, on 10/12/2007, -1/+56Marked this as inaccurate until we have official confirmation.

      However, considering the front page of their site says they've already got a date picked out, I'd doubt it: http://www.e3expo.com/default.aspx

      Besides, the money spent on E3 *more* than pays back for the amount of media coverage and otherwise free publicity the game companies get. Spend a million on a series of TV ads that last for a week, or spend a million on a nice presentation that lasts for months in the gaming news? I think the choice is rather clear...
    • seanthebond, on 10/12/2007, -18/+9So what do we have now? The Tokyo Game Show? First G4 knocks off all of the video-games on the channel, now the industry itself is shooting itself in the foot. Good job guys... Good job.

      Maybe the influence of Digg may work its magic.
    • joeshlub, on 10/12/2007, -0/+16I highly doubt this is true. E3 is way too big of a venue to just end like that, I'm sure that at the very least it will come back in another form, as they mention. But I doubt it would ever go entirely.
    • arunforce, on 10/12/2007, -2/+36Exit E3. Enter E4.
    • mikeon, on 10/12/2007, -0/+28Electronic Entertainment Extreme Exposition?
    • TrainwreckX, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3@Servetus

      Have you ever been to Kentia Hall and stopped and actually looked in some of the booths? Indeed some of the greatest innovations in the industry can be seen here, and you fall into the whole "dregs of the industry" pool? Shame on you. Shame on you for not actually investigating Kentia yourself and seeing some of the amazing things people are doing that will be in the video games of tomorrow.

      Also, Red Octane is in Kentia Hall. You, sir, suck.
    • Servetus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0@TrainwreckX

      I've been to Kentia. I'm Sticking to my statement. Studios are wasting their resources by paying to be there, no matter how cool and innovative they are.

      The whole of Kentia could be compressed into 10' by 10' space and it still wouldn't come near the coolness density of the Independent Games Pavilion at GDC. A hip new developer is waisting resources buying a booth between vendors for GBA cozies and mice shaped like guns.
    • OBKenobi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Oh what will all the booth sluts do now?

      Anyway, this is inaccurate. It's not cancelled, only downsized.
    • jasonlc, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Tim,

      I think you and a lot of other people don't understand how much these companies spend on E3.

      Our company have been exibitors at E3 the last couple years and even managing a very small space is terribly expensive.

      The floorspace, union costs, booth construction, staffing, hotel/travel/food, production costs of special E3 materials, promos, etc...

      It all adds up quickly... I know that companies like Nintendo, Sony, EA etc... often spend 5+ MM$ on their booth production alone... sure some of this is amortized over a few years but add the staff and all other things I mentioned and you could have a 5-15 million dollar expenditure per year, easily.

      E3 also has become such a "noisy" event with regard to PR/Announcements that its dominated by the hardware releases like the wii/ps3/360 and major publisher titles... so there's not much there for the smaller guys.

  • kiduk, on 10/12/2007, -36/+2OMG.

    What will the smaller devs do to get the word out, this is going to kill smaller companies that relied on e3 to get the word out.
    • pixlox, on 10/12/2007, -1/+35heard of the Internet?
    • DavidtheDuke, on 10/12/2007, -2/+14digg.com would be one good catalyst
    • ricodued, on 10/12/2007, -0/+14They still have such places as the GDC (Game Developers Conference). While geared towards developers, it is still a place where they can get the word out about their games (think Apple and the WWDC).
    • sonick, on 10/12/2007, -2/+17FYI: "The Internet is a communication tool used the world over where people can come together to bitch about movies and share pornography with one another."
    • ingoldsby, on 10/12/2007, -0/+13Truly small developers can not afford to put on a production at E3. I'm not sure if people realize just how expensive shows like this are to the people who have booths.

      For example, at the National Nutrition Expo every year, my family's company has had a booth. Same idea as E3 (and the same venue) but with nutritional products. On average it costs around $20,000 when all is said and done to have a small booth there. And we are local - now imagine E3 which has much more elaborate booths, and developers traveling from other parts of the country...
    • championchap, on 10/12/2007, -9/+1comic con is good too, thats where the behemoth tend to make their announcments.. there and on Newgrounds (of course)
    • Servetus, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2I can't imagine E3 being any good for small developers either. They all ended up being regulated to *shudder* Kentia hall if they had any presence at all.
    • Rosco, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3As ricodued said above, there's still GDC. But also a new event that's been gaining popularity the past couple of years is PAX, from Tycho and Gabe at Penny Arcade. I'm surprised nobody has mentioned that one yet.
  • Frinkahedron, on 10/12/2007, -1/+54I'll wait for the official press release.
    • williamrocks, on 10/12/2007, -1/+12I agree, but this is pretty sad, the hype of E3 was just so great, it's sad to lose it!
  • HHogan, on 10/12/2007, -8/+2Can't say we didn't see this coming at the last E3. NC Soft was the first publisher to publicly speak out at the event, and trade shows generally aren't worth it anymore.

    Personally, I'd rather spend my E3 budget on media advertising, and build hype that way.

    Not too mention GDC every 2 years is in a better city (San Francisco vs. LA), and serves more of a purpose than E3.
  • reddevil3, on 10/12/2007, -1/+13Maybe now Nintendo will have the Space World event every year?
  • luke--, on 10/12/2007, -3/+10Is this a joke? I heart e3!

    But I bet editors all across the nation are doing the dance of joy at this news.
  • FcukDt7, on 10/12/2007, -2/+23How come the official site [http://www.e3expo.com/default.aspx] says that "Planning is already underway for E3 2007"?
  • Negyxo, on 10/12/2007, -4/+48OK... so, my only real concern is the e3 booth babes ? They need jobs , you know. WOULD SOMEONE PLEASE THINK OF THE HOTTIES!?
  • chibigoku, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7Dang it!! And I was going to go next year!!
  • magicianb, on 10/12/2007, -2/+12Cost benefit ratio was destroyed by Nintendo dominating the conference this year. Sony and MS got barely any quality coverage because of how they didn't really have anything innovative to announce. Put on a good show and it'll be worth it, not the fault of the event.
    • robotfighter, on 10/12/2007, -14/+6Are you serious? Microsoft and Sony had fantastic coverage from this year's event. Most people would argue with you that Microsoft owned E3 this year. Either way, everyone got great coverage, even Sony, who took plenty of dings for their goofball half-hearted press conference.

      It's just a matter of spending $5 million on a booth, and finding that you could've spent that money in so many bettter ways, rather than kill yourself for a three day show that ends up with everyone pissed off anyhow. The ESA dug their own hole with this, letting more and more of the public into what was meant to be a trade-only event, then screwing the press by offering "early entry" then actually not letting them get in.
    • noliberalbull, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6Exactly what I was thinking. All this is is the companies saying "we don't want to have to compete with a better show".
    • greedycheese, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1The problem is the only people who know what Nintendo or Sony or Microsoft did at E3 are the ones who for the most part actively searched out E3 coverage. These companies can just cut out the middleman (and the multimillion dollar expense) and just give info directly to the websites that cover E3. We still get the same info and they get to save money off the bottom line, which is critical as game budgets skyrocket.

      This is terrible news for people like me who love the spectacle of E3 but it makes alot of sense.

  • jaybob007, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2Maybe they should of had the show open to the public. I'm sure there are millions (myself included) of gamers, who would've paid good money to attend E3. Then it might have been worth it for the industry...
    • GrammarMonkey, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2Should HAVE my friend, should have.
    • aywwts4, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4No it wouldnt be, the signal to noise ratio would be so high, Developers would be talking to people, trying to walk people through their new technology hoping to get a writeup in whatever the hell gaming website or blog they are from, and instead they are just talking to joe schmoe who might buy 100 dollars in games next month and just wants to play a demo early.

      Like they would pay millions of dollars to show a handfull of gaming geeks their new game in person.
  • robotfighter, on 10/12/2007, -2/+8Thank God, I was getting tired of that show after five years. For the return you get on a multi-million dollar booth, your money's better spent on direct-to-consumer shows like VGxpo and PAX. E3, in its current format, has worn out its welcome.

    Small devs never got good coverage at E3 anyhow (I should know, I've worked for many) that they couldn't get by just doing lots of leg work with the magazine editors. Large publishers, well, they'll just announce their games as normal, we'll still hear about them, it just won't be an announcement surrounded by big Sony parties and large-breasted Konami/Techmo booth girls.

    Nobody but the partiers and the EBgames kids who kept flooding the booths will miss E3. Frankly, if a game publisher has to rely solely on E3 for coverage, their game's not so good in the first place -or at least their PR/Marketing team isn't that good.
    • Servetus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I agree 100%. It disgusts me how much resources get wasted on putting together an E3 demo that could be better spent on the final game. It literally adds months on to schedules. Go though many code games' code bases and you'll see "#ifdef E3DEMO" tearing up the code all over the place.

      I also think that gaming blogs killed E3. The old media had a certain code that they didn't talk ***** about pre-release material, they just highlighted the good points and potential and waited for the final product before tearing into it. Gaming blogs seem to have no qualms about spitting venom about a game that is a year away from release just because it has a choppy framerate. What benefit is there to publishers to show off their pre-release titles if all it gets them is negative press?
    • MackAttack87, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1E3 may be the biggest right now but robotfighter is right, PAX from the guys over at penny arcade is awesome, and accesable to anyone. i have been to PAX every year and it has been amazing every year, and has gotten bigger and better each time.
      P.S. PAX06 is in 1 month!
  • iohc, on 10/12/2007, -34/+1Hey
    If you kill off the command line interface then there won't be any applications at all, because most programs run on the shell in the background anyways, think of it as a stepping stone to some thing greater, without it, Cool GUI interfaces would not have existed!!
    • thefinalruin, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8What? How is this related to E3 getting cancelled?
    • xqb4dpx, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1hes probably confused with the last post.
  • PhantomaZero, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4Well, now Peter Moore can take back his claim about Xbox Live reaching 10 million subscribers by the next E3 if he's disproven.
  • TimmyGUNZ, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Perhaps this will allow Digital Life in NYC to gain more momentum.
    • xqb4dpx, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2digital life SUCKED. it needs to get cooler and better and *****.
  • markhowson999, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6Inaccurate. The official site says 07 is going ahead. Lets not worry until we are sure.
  • tastyterrorist, on 10/12/2007, -9/+1Noooo!

    http://metalgearno.ytmnd.com/
  • diggn_it, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I think the publishers are making a mistake. No one is going to go to an event with just one publishers games. It would be about 5 hours long, and the majority of the content would be mediorcre. What made E3 so great was that because so many publishers were there, people could see the best each publisher had to offer. They might be mad because they dont get enough attention with people being forced to see everything at once, but no one is going to go to a Konami event just to see the one big game they have going for them.
    • Cougaboy, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4Just a thought, but have you ever heard of Blizzcon? Or Quakecon? My guess is that companies want to go more towards this direction.
    • robotfighter, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I disagree. If it's an event just for members of the industry, they'll attend. The only people this will "hurt" are those retail employees that the show wasn't designed for, but kept showing up in increasing numbers every year (ebgames/gamestop store clerks, for example, who would crowd a booth so the actual editors never could get time with a game).

      Most of the big publishers have special events of their own, and trust me, they are well-attended by the intended target audience. The loss of E3 will not hurt press coverage one bit. It just means the net time you go to EB, the clerk you are talking to won't be able to tell you how he stood in line for 3 hours to see the Wii, and it was "awesome".
  • KevinIsANoob, on 10/12/2007, -19/+1NICE!!!! THIS IS AWESOME!!!!
    • thefinalruin, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Lame. You're just trying to start a war, aren't you?
  • willij, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7Be kind of nice if this hurts G4. But it probably won't.
    • gregmo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4they'll just replace the time with reporting on counterstrike leagues or some *****.
    • ahatter, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1im sure G4 will be there.
    • trunkster, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5G4 will probably start their on crappy version of e3 if this is true.
    • xqb4dpx, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Welcome to G3!!

      Here at G4, we delightfully realized that absolutely NOBODY likes us! We know we have ruined TechTV's wonderful network, and replaced it with the crapfest that we are. Hopefully, with G3, a gaming conference, we can emphasize that suckiness with extra wasted TV time!

      Sincerely Yours,
      Cumcast.
  • nextgengames, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Right then as probably only one here who is in the industry. E3 is NOT CANCELED. The expo center has been booked. Currently publishers such as EA, are re-evaluating there spend allocation to the event. The costs for E3 are currently going through the roof. EA's booth cost over $1 million this year. I think what we will see in 2007 is a smaller show, Nothings Official yet and Joystiq have jumped the can calling it canned.
    • Cyborg771, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Thats a good thing, every year E3 just gets louder and flashier. It will be nice to have a more content centric show next year. Besides, you know that the big 3 will still go all out at the show anyways. (If sony is still making video games. Hey, a man can dream.)
    • GrammarMonkey, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Jumped the can? Did you just make that up?
  • daceofhrts, on 10/12/2007, -5/+3Not going to work. Unless the ESA steps in and actually mandates certain restrictions, this is a classic case of the prisoner's dilemma. Eventually, one publisher is going to cheat and reap the benefits and the arms race will be back on. More on this in my blog:
    http://brandednewb.blogspot.com/2006/07/e3-history-not-in-industry-of-cheats.html
    • HylianTom, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1This was my first thought - you can bet that if a non-binding agreement is made, it will be too tempting for a company to go a bit over the limits in an attempt to outshine everyone else at the event.
  • blackjack75, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7The year after they decide censoring the booth babes the whole thing crumbles. Isn't that great...
    • totorototoro, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1d8cam, i was just thinking the same thing. No wonder there is a lack of interest.
    • xqb4dpx, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1they could at least keep the E3 olympics going (you know, new consoles every 4 years) and just have a show every 4 years.
  • sigintop, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2After the whole booth babe incident, I guess it was destined to head downhill. :(
  • toaplan, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Sad if true, but not making an e3 version shaves about 1 month of crunchtime off my schedule plus leaves time for maybe one more level :) Unless I'll have to make a wal-mart demo, a target demo and a magazine demo of course...
  • theventure, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2 People mark this as inaccurate, there not cancelling it, they might be downsizing it a bit though.
    • Computer_Kid, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1No more filly clothed booth babes?
  • Computer_Kid, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6Augh! E3 was on my list of things to do before I die, right before getting laid! :-)
  • LavaHot, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Hmm, Maybe if they lifted the restrictions on the E3 babes, the big companies would reconsider? Personally I don't believe any of this story. Granted the PS3 got outshined by both the XBox 360 and the Wii, but how else could they get press on such a large scale? I understand why comdex died, CES got bigger press, but there is no reason to stop E3.
  • aristofa, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Monday is coming. Let's see what ESA has to say...
  • ParadoxControl, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1Man this sucks.
    Me and some buddys have been wanting to get out and see E3 atleast once.
    it looks like we missed our chance.
    • Prod1gy, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2You can't just get tickets into E3, you need to be a game developer, journalist, etc. Its a trade-event only, you need to have a job in the industry.

      Sorry if you and your buddies are though :x
  • Hermitwise, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2 I actually like this. I mean I do enjoy the insane 3 day rush of new game info, but I can see how it would be nice to have it all spread out as well. Also this could swing the industry to year round marketing which also means the release dates may spread out a bit (not a whole lot considering the holiday season) to some degree and therefor softening the game dry spells.
  • rick2k, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7On the E3 website:

    Planning is already underway for E3 2007. Mark your calendars:

    E3 2007
    May 16-18, 2007
    Los Angeles Convention Center
  • scott1, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2"ESA president Doug Lowenstein will likely announce the news some time within the next 48 hours, possibly on Monday."
    How could someone write an article about somthing that hasn't been annoced yet?

    It doesn't make sense why they would get rid of E3. There's alot of presscoverage for the newset games that are about to come out, every company loves have alot of presscoveage for there new games it's like advertistments that people actually watch/read. This hurt the industry alot.
  • DaFox, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5God i hope this is fake because, seriously those 3 E3 days are like Christmas ya know?
    Thats the best way to find out about new games coming out.
  • Redchannel, on 10/12/2007, -6/+4Two words and I demand respect:
    This is *****.
    • Zedtech, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5Uh dude... thats totally three words.
    • GorGenator, on 10/12/2007, -2/+12Well maybe he's like Google and "is" is unneccessary and will not be included in his terms.
  • glafira, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1I think they will replace it with something.
  • xXShadowstormXx, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4http://www.e3expo.com/default.aspx

    E3 is not cancelled. It has been marked on the official E3 website:

    Planning is already underway for E3 2007. Mark your calendars:

    E3 2007
    May 16-18, 2007
    Los Angeles Convention Center
  • afx1, on 10/12/2007, -8/+1Did anyone RTFA??? E3 is not mentioned ONCE in the article itself. It's talkin about the Entertainment Software Association (ESA). E3 stands for Electronic Entertainment Expo.
  • distrbnce, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Completely impossible.

    If companies were upset that it was so much money, then they wouldn't spend so much money.
  • xcwarrior, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Let's hope this is an inaccurate one. E3 is such a huge event. They could just not spend so much money on all the flashiness. That is their own fault. Just show us what we need to see, the games and systems. And there will always be another GameBoy of some kind to show off. They come out like every year it seems.
  • Sentientv2, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1In it's present form, according to the report that there will be no major vendors there (eg. Ninentendo, Sony, MS for examples (not verified), then it wouldn't be financially feasible to run it without the big conferences and attention to those vendors showing out.

    They might still have an E3, but it would be significantly scaled back. From my experience as a rabid reader of NextGen, they usually don't report anything inaccurate. I can't think of anything in a year and a half that was off the mark.
  • Zippo, on 10/12/2007, -4/+2*sniff sniff* You smell that? I smell *****.
  • HanSolo69, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2Gamespot has a much clearer and much more rational article on their homepage. too bad somebody already Dugg it with another "OMFG e3 is Teh Cancelledz000rz!!1111"
    • Sentientv2, on 10/12/2007, -3/+0God bless internet grammar for delivering the important n3wz04z first.
  • djpnuemo, on 10/12/2007, -4/+2this is so f'ing stupid. that website has just dropped down to a waste of time site because of this 'exclusive'. stupid 'journalism' like this is the reason the internet gets a bad rap.

    don't bother commenting on my comment, cause i'm not going to read it.
    • EGOvoruhk, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Oh pretty please, wont you read my comment?
  • Sentientv2, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Maybe this will break the trend of every company showing out at e3 and simply planning for November releases. In my opinion, if not having E3 is going to break this solely holiday release schedule for about 75% of good games, then I am for it. They already have their big shows off site now anyways.
  • Slybri, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Personally, I'm glad. I'm sick of reading gamerblogs going on about how great E3 is. The free drinks, the parties, the half naked women, all the free schwag they get in return for hyping the product for the next year. I just want to know about the games.

    If the game companies want me to get excited about thier games they should release a demo so I can try it myself instead of reading some "hands on" report from some half drunk "games journalist" being bribed with nintendo keychains and *****-teased by booth babes. I'm the one buying the games. Where's my free keychain?

    E3 coverage should be about the games, not E3. And certainly not about the journalists. I honestly don't care how great a time Will Wheaton is having at E3. I just want to know what games are coming out, what games look good, and how long do I have to wait to buy the damn thing. That's it.
  • wilf_brim, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1This is rumor at this point, but one that I can believe. Evidentially none of you have ever heard of Comdex. That used to be the huge show in Las Vegas, but it got too big, and too expensive. For the last two years everybody that was there was saying how large E3 was, how hard it was to cover and (most importantly) how there wasn't anything really interesting on the floor. The important stuff was either announced at a conference (and not shown on the floor) and/or only shown behind closed doors.
    • hypersoar, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Comdex faded over the course of 2-3 years. It was finally ended after attendance had plummeted. E3 attendance keeps getting higher. If it does go away, it's not going to simply vanish into thin air.
  • otaleks, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1hope it is false
  • miketuck3r, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2E3 currently runins announcement/news for at least 3 months each side of the event, it will be good if announcements are spread out over the year

    lets face it very few actaully get to go its mostly a pissup for the press, on our expense (as we buy the games)
  • hyfc3s, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2This might be a good thing.E3 started off as a Trade show for the video game industry.Now it is just a media and hype machine.I read somewhere that ESA just wants to make it smaller and more productive instead of the ear drum splitting music with the half naked women not interested in you.Hopefully it is for the better!
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