Comments on: E3 Rubbish, Say Bigwigs

By: iainl

iainl — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 09:31:19 +0000

Nintendo fans are just annoyed that the company quite rightly talked about what they expect to shift a metric tonne of units on. I like Mario as much as the next poster (probably more, given this is a PC site), but Animal Crossing and Wii Summer Sports are going to be the big sellers; bigger than anything Sony talked about, for instance.

By: SwiftRanger

SwiftRanger — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 13:08:22 +0000

Do these execs know what they’re saying? The scaling down thing happened in the first place because the publishers themselves said the stands were getting too big and expensive, the whole show became too big with too many titles and too many visitors.

And it probably went from one extreme into the other although the worst thing about this E3 is that we haven’t seen much from smaller publishers (Disciples III and that’s it I guess?). I get the impression that with the downsizing it’s becoming more of a US event rather than a global event. Hopefully Leipzig can compensate for that.

By: propanol

propanol — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 12:38:43 +0000

Obviously a lot of video game developers don’t like the new format. The old E3 made them feel like rockstars for simply being involved in the creation of games somehow. The new E3 puts them back in reality where they’re businessmen and have to act the part, which is exactly how it should have been from the beginning – not the free for all marketing extravaganza the old E3 was.

By: Okami

Okami — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 10:46:27 +0000

I guess this E3 wasn’t too bad for PC gamers. I mean, we could be Nintendo fans. Then we’d be really screwed…

By: Alex

Alex — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 14:00:28 +0000

Most importantly, I think, the public were allowed in.

No they weren’t really, but it was easier for them to worm their way in. Anyone who had a blog mildly related to gaming could apply, as could people who worked at gamestores.

Mark Noseworthy of Relic (Dawn of War, Company of Heroes, etc.) said he once was talking to this guy for 15 minutes about his game and at the end asked who he worked for and the guy said he was there for his high school newspaper.

E3 has become a lot pickier about who gets an invite, which has made a lot of people crap their pants in frustration and anger.

By: Muzman

Muzman — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 03:46:52 +0000

In previous years it was a proper full blown trade show cum film/music festival/convention; All the big names showed up to promote their wares in ever more elaborate booths and displays, while everyone else bought small tables in the back room and begged for publishers and investors (and the whole thing had a ‘Oh Yeah! Gaming knows how to throw a party too Hollywood!’ Revenge of the Nerds vibe to it if you ask me). Most importantly, I think, the public were allowed in.
After a few years of that starting to look like a very big industry-media circle jerk in which the public show up to fawn, many articles were written about how it might be time to grow up. So last year they had the first toned down E3; industry only and sane regular schedules of talks and what not, leaning more towards a conference than pure marketing.
And now in its second year of this approach it’s getting articles from people who miss the old E3.
That’s one casual viewer/cynic ‘never going to get to go myself so I’ll throw stones’ version. There’s probably other important details

By: MeestaNob!

MeestaNob! — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 02:58:42 +0000

I don’t keep up these things, can someone explain whats different this year as opposed to previous E3s?

By: No Problem

No Problem — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 22:25:29 +0000

IGN PC didn’t like this years E3 either, and I’m inclined to agree with them, Charles especially.

http://pc.ign.com/articles/891/891899p1.html

By: kuddles

kuddles — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 21:40:14 +0000

Yeah, from the standpoint of an outsider, it seemed like a great E3 to me. I learned a lot of info about games I’m interested in, as well as ones that I was on the fence about, not to mention a few surprises.

Also, I think E3 is being a whipping boy no matter what happens. The same people whining about how dull and restrained it is are the same people who whined about how it was an impossible to cover annoying circus for years leading up to these changes.

By: Steven Hutton

Steven Hutton — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 21:03:26 +0000

You know if they’d just released the trailers that they released at the show onto gametrailers I literally wouldn’t have noticed the difference.

By: andy

andy — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 20:48:30 +0000

par for course, i didn’t even bother to follow it online, i seem to vaguely recall everyone more or less yapping about maybe 6 or so games the last 3 days. over and over and over…releasing the same trailer material respliced 10 different ways every other hour.

By: Cigol

Cigol — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 20:37:59 +0000

Is this why RPS wasn’t personally present, or just a pleasing coincidence?