Since year and day was the E3, the Electronic Entertainment Expo, the Mecca for gamejournalisten, retailers and others who have business ge lwa interested in the phenomena of computer games and multimedia entertainment. Los Angeles was in may, always one week in the sign of the latest games, great revelations from Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo and the starting point for the najaarshoos of new releases.
International was gaming for a week on the card where the Los Angeles transformed was into a large gamecircus with renowned festivals, press conferences advance to the three regular E3 days, interviews with big names from the industry, enormous billboards with gamereclames everywhere you looked and so on. Every self-respecting gamejournalist, writing and working for newspapers, specialised press, tv or internet went up in the month of may, year in, year out, down to Los Angeles. It was all happening, saw the future of the game industry.
The fact that I was in the past time of writing, indicates that the times have changed. In recent years, there is a draft in the E3 formula. By the proliferation of websites became so untenable pressure on the trading floor normally, make appointments, and playing games becoming less and less possible. Each slimmerikje of 15 that html knew and a website together could turn, reported to and obtained accreditation for the fair. Also had speluitgevers more and more the idea itself must be distinguished by the large, loud booths to put down. The booths of Electronic Arts are famous with such hard banging music from the speakers you could barely understand. I speak from personal experience when I say that after a week, my voice was gone completely, since I as the written press also work for tv did (and do), and believe me, that was no fun to be in the middle of thousands of teeming, sweaty visitors, rumbling boxes, and chaotic afsprakenbalies with each timetable with feet was entered. Too many visitors allowed also for that you have to sometimes 3 hours in the row had to stand up to the new Zelda from Nintendo to view or to get a glimpse of Half-life 2 to be able to catch. It became every year more difficult to normally get your work done.
Last year was the E3 no longer in the LA Convention Center, in Santa Monica. The major parties had spread all over various hotels, and you should only visit if you like the E3-organization is an official lwa le invitation had. The advantages: it was much quieter, there was more space and time to talk with people and you could actually play the games. The disadvantages: you was constantly between different hotels on the commute, some of the parties kept their assets for the Leipzig Game Convention, and the entire magical, international atmosphere as well as the associated craziness was secretly still missed.
It turned out that the E3 organization of the LA Convention Center a fine of $ 5 million had been given by the E3 not at that location. A long-term contract was obviously broken. This year’s E3 back in the stock exchange, but the ‘smaller’ will be held. The need of the E3, however, is much and much less, and some parties are of the opinion that the E3 this year for the very last time.
Just think about it. I, the undersigned, and Tweakers.just colleague jurian pieter just returned from Paris of the two-day Ubidays. There showed Ubisoft its entire line-up for the coming months until the end of december 2008. And Ubisoft is not the only one in. The past few months, there are various events involving Electronic Arts, Microsoft, Sony, Sierra, THQ, Midway, and Blizzard all have their own, large-scale events organized for the press. I am with several of these showcases have been (about which more soon on Tweakers.net) and have lots of parties the complete fall line-up has been allowed to see and play. It is exactly four weeks after the E3, the Leipzig Game Convention, more and more emerged as the European E3. So, why still to LA travel?
A Ubisoft employee told me during the event in Paris, that one on the E3, a new announcement is going to do a new game, while in Leipzig, three new titles will reveal. It shows how things are going. And yet it is strange that the E3 perhaps ‘death’ is. Anyway, I’m glad eight times in a row at the E3 to have allowed to visit, but Leipzig is definitely a worthy replacement for the American event.
P. S.: Please Tweakers.net next week, a sharp eye; jurian pieter and I will be here extended explain what games on the Ubidays show.