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[Salz01]

E3 died when they eliminated booth babes.

 

[TheGodfather07]

None of these companies need E3 anymore. Live streaming platforms were always gonna kill it. Why go on their timing, when you can do a show whenever you want instead?

 

[DaGwaphics]

Right, it's not that they're not interested in staging a marketing damburst of content and announcements or that the mid-summer timeline no longer works for gaming companies. (I had thought that was going to be an issue with game development pushing much longer than in the past, but the known streaming events from Ubisoft and Microsoft are still right in the same June-week-2 time period that E3 was supposed to happen.) They still want the hype pop of E3, they just want to control it (no live demonstrations, no press hands-on, no competitors in the room next door,) and not pay for it.

Strategically, I get it. E3 is a product of an outdated way of selling product. But as a sign of the health of the industry, saving some bucks to not throw parties is a bad trend. (I'd at least be in favor of E3 dying if there were more events like Blizzcon for fans, but then could SEGA or Ubisoft really have a public event that people would come out for?) And for me as a gamer, I just am struggling so hard to summon any at all fucks for any video streaming event. E3 could get boring (it was usually over before the day it official even started, thanks to all the pre-showcases before opening the show floor,) but at least it was live in the moment and at a given time that I could set aside some enthusiasm.

Seriously, I think Covid killed it more than anything. Everyone realized that the industry would keep chugging along without it, with the big players still getting full news cycle coverage on their streams at a fraction of the cost.

If E3 or any type of live gaming convention is going to live the organizers would have to move away from a model that relies on charging participants exorbitant fees. It would have to be primarily advertiser or retail supported (maybe participants agree to allow the convention itself to act as retailers of all the onsite merch and so forth). Not that it isn't normal for participants to pay for their space at events like this, but the fees being charged for E3 seem just seem astronomical.

 

[Astral Dog]

"winning" E3 was dumb anyways

 

[MarkMe2525]

Everyone else could have stuck to it. They realized in the social media and influencer age, it's a waste of time and money.

For sure, but no one is debating if E3 is the best platform for the major players. The premise was that Sony would be blamed for the downfall of E3, and my statement was that Sony and other major players doing there own thing absolutely killed it.

I'm not even saying Sony, Nintendo, and EA are wrong. In saying that, I wish it would be different. I appreciate the build up of hype for a conference, it was akin to a gaming holiday season. You knew that come that week, you were going to be overwhelmed with the latest, greatest, and worse that the industry has to offer.

 

[Editaur]

I'm pretty sure E3 died the first time they started doing these "type" of articles 10+ years ago.

 

[diffusionx]

Publishers were griping about E3 before 2020, so once all that hit, it just had no chance. Every company figured out a way to sell directly to customers, it's way cheaper and they can't see the benefits of traveling to LA with a giant booth and all that. Nintendo was way ahead of the curve with their directs. E3 is a relic of a time and place that has for better or worse passed.

Personally I like E3, because I like getting all the news in one shot instead of being dribbled out in a bunch of boring videos and articles over months, but I'm not the one paying the bills.

 

[Iced Arcade]

Has to be a way to fix it! We can't be left with The Video Game Awards with Keighley

 

[fart town usa]

If E3 dies, so should IGN and all the other trash videogame outlets, it's only fair.

 

[NikuNashi]

The rot set in when the booth babes were cancelled and replaced with rainbow haired land whales who had played 5 minutes of animal crossing and decided they were gamers.

 

[nush]

You have no idea how anything works.

Only 7 years, n00b. How many video-game franchises have you worked on? Get back in your corner Mr "Mariokart 9 is getting announced this Wednesday".

 

[Neilg]

E3 died when they eliminated booth babes.

E3 died when booth babes were no longer needed to get more press at your booth. The booth babes were irrelevant before they were removed.

Its nasty as fuck but the idea of a gaming event where information is only handed out to those who go to a specific physical space and held back for print in magazine is long gone. People walk up to a booth and it's on Twitter in under 5 seconds. All control from the brand is gone - of course the brand will regain control over their message by other means.