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Forum - View topicThis Week in Games - The Long Death of E3
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AiddonValentine
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E3 dies...right around the time everyone in the industry lets Keighley know how much they despise him and his events. Have fun with that, Geoff.
E3 was really in a weird place even before the pandemic hit with it being halfway between a fan convention and a trade show. And considering how shows like TGS and GamesCom are still going despite a changing industry, it's all the starker. I wouldn't be surprised if some new show takes it place in the coming years, but it's clear E3 as it was is done. As for Epic, seeing Google get humbled is always funny, even if it's coming from perennial assbag Sweeney. Let them fight and all that. |
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Cam0
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I've been listening to old Giant Bombcast episodes and it's interesting that in these old podcasts from 2008 these industry veteran dudes are talking about how E3 is losing relevancy. I don't remember the exact talking points but it's interesting that these dudes who had been going to the E3 since the 90s already saw back then that E3 had to make some big changes or die.
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mewpudding101
Industry Insider
![]() Posts: 2209 Location: Tokyo, Japan |
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“ E3 suffered a string of cancellations before the event officially shuddered.”
Why would an event shudder…? Is it scared…? (The proper term is “shutter”. As in close the shutters.) https://dictionary.cambridge.org/ja/dictionary/english/shuttered |
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ANN_Lynzee
ANN Executive Editor
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The homonym is fixed, but would appreciate less snark toward our writer about it next time. |
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jdnation
Posts: 2057 |
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The main draw for fans were the live press conferences that were pre-E3.
There's no reason they couldn't have these on their own time and schedule simply as enthusiast events. The Direct streams of trailers and pre-recorded stuff just don't hold up the magic. Sure they could be great or they could be bad, but part of the fun is that the highs were HIGH and the lows were low, and you never knew what to expect. The companies have opted for the cheaper, safe and controlled option. "No balls" is how I would describe their marketing now. Little wonder that people are getting bored. |
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Wack Sage
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That infamous Wii Music panel is classic just because of that alone, even if it was a disaster. And others like the Skyward Sword demonstration where the game bugged out. The jank was human, and part of the soul. The pivot to prerecorded videos and reveals wasn't bad for NIntendo, at least back when the Monster Trio of Reggie, Iwata, and Trinen were around and we got those lovely skits like the Amiibo reveals. You could argue they're pretty bland these days though. But other companies doing the direct thing, eh they never really stood out for me. Feel very corporate and safe. At least TGS is still around and we can still get some of the old convention culture and flare if you miss it. They even still have booth babes where as E3 banned them ages ago ![]() |
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BadNewsBlues
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I always love when people complain about companies taking no risks and when they do which usually leads to condemnation or mockery when it goes south with those some people wondering “what the hell were they thinking?” As it’s already been mentioned numerous times elsewhere e3 and all it entailed had it’s place but there’s no much reason to have a live event showcasing the future of video games when such events became increasingly superfluous due to costs, logistics, & the fact that a fraction of the audience watching this was only ever interested in seeing stuff from one brand anyway. You can say the magic is gone but ultimately it’s irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. |
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jdnation
Posts: 2057 |
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That's what I'm sayin! The memes and hilarity were all part of the fun! ![]() A bad conference didn't mean the end either. The following year a company could easily bounce back with a good conference. Sony is infamous for having some great ones and some bad ones. But everything is forgiven with some great announcements. At least early Nintendo Directs did try and be whimsical and not the boring State of Plays. But it feels like they are phoning it in lately. The pizazz of well produced stage presentations is part of marketing. And the human element you mention can be especially charming. But at the end of the day, a bad E3 is not because someone flubbed their lines on stage, or any accident. It's because there were NO GOOD PRODUCTS revealed. Even a ho-hum presentation can be enticing if the games being shown are good, and that forced companies to put their best wares up, not just mixing them with minor things that not many care about that at best were interstitials relegated to a reel in between big unveils.
Sure, E3 as an all in one event, I can understand being impractical. But as I mentioned, the Press Conferences were pre-E3 and outside of the convention center. They just happened to be scheduled around E3. Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo can hold one on their own terms anywhere they want. LA just happens to be convenient because a lot of people would be there to attend and live audiences are good for that sort of thing. Frankly they can just do the same thing and invite the press, and even monetize it by selling tickets to fans to fill up the seats and have them play unreleased games or watch extended demos or tech stuff behind the scenes and let them do the marketing via social media and sell them more merchandise and have open Q & As with devs and executives. It's easily doable and fans would appreciate it and that maintains interest in your brand. The 3rd Parties you showcase there would also be happy to piggyback on it. This brings me to another issue with The Game Awards... there are too many things in there that nobody cares about. But with E3, every conference was dedicated to one set of wares, and if you were only interested in Microsoft or Sony or Nintendo or Ubisoft or Capcom or Square Enix, then those shows were dedicated to your interests and nothing else. But with the Game Awards, it's everyone's uncle, and that means more things you're probably not interested in, in the hopes of seeing something you are interested in. Hence the boredom most feel until they decide they will just wait until all the trailers and segments they care about are individually put up online. |
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Silver Kirin
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Perhaps 5 or more years ago, the news that E3 would no longer be held would have saddened me, but now as an adult who just turned 30, and who knows a little more about what actually goes into this events, I didn't feel much about the news, especially since it was already clear, even before the pandemic started, that the E3 was on its last legs.
I remember getting excited by the event as a kid, watching some reports on the TV back in the early 2000s when I was in elementary, reading the news on magazines and then around 2006 finally having access to the Internet to read the news inmediatly. But I cannot blame companies like Nintendo and Sony not caring anymore about the event, it must have been a logistical nightmare, perparing some game for the event and trying to make a good impression, and while there were some memorable moments like Sony's $299 speech or the Twilights Princess reveal, we others like the PS3 presentation or the Wii Music fiasco. While even some of the bad moments are held with nostalgia, no company wants to make a fool of themselves, it's no wonder to see why they prefer those pre-recorded presentation. And while some people some of the magic is now lost, at the end of the day the E3 was primarily a trade show, it was never meant to be a celebration of gaming as a art form, no matter how much they tried to make artistic presentations with music, choreography and epic speeches. At the end of the day, the purpose of many of those presentations were focused on generating hype, which often ended up disappointing many people. |
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LinkTSwordmaster
![]() Posts: 476 Location: PA / USA |
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I think jdnation has hit the nail on the head. I think it says a lot, that if I were to ask you (reading this now) what games won what awards on what year, you might be able to recite one of the big ones, but The Game Awards are such a marketing-saturated blur of garbage that no one really cares about, that I'd bet money that the only thing people are remembering is the memes. It's easy to recall Chris Judge having a long speech or that weird troll coming up after Elden Ring, but tell me what games were originally debuted at TGAs and which games have won and I'd probably be taking money to the bank because no one remembers or cares. E3 was about the spectacle. Sometimes that spectacle was cringe, but every gamer that has looked forward to E3 knows what Ninety-Nine Knights is because of those weird E3 moments. The memes weren't (usually, Jamie Kennedy sucks) about the individuals putting the show together like it is with the Doritos Pope, the memes were largely about the games and the weird/cringey way they got presented. As bad as the Wii Music thing was, I cant imagine anyone that was already a Nintendo fan, stopped being a Nintendo fan in that moment. With time and distance, it's a fun/goofy memory to look back on. How many fun/goofy memories about games has TGAs generated I wonder? Next year is their 10-year anniversary, and I would be really really shocked if anyone has that sort of nostalgia for it, on the sort of level E3 generated over the years. It sucks, the industry climate right now really does promote watching streams for game news. Going to a physical location, especially post-pandemic is financially stupid for the purposes of product education. The big thing now is being able to watch in a call with your friends, while demos download to your console during the show. Maybe some form of E3 can come back if the venue were to move to VR, but I dunno. It was E3's time to go, but I think moreso due to the fact that the people running it couldn't figure out how to get with the times and what the show should be. Clearly The Game Awards knows what its identity is, and on any given year I'm happy to just skip it and read the headlines. The streamers will just clip the standout memes anyways. |
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