Checking the URLs very carefully this time:
Next Generation: E3 Finished as Big Exhibs Pull Support
Ars Technica: E3 game trade show not cancelled, but will be downsized
(via Broken Toys & Slashdot)
Seems like the high point of the gaming industry calendar is starting to wobble a bit, with a number of the bigger names deciding not to bother next year. It's hard to tell what the real picture is there, amid the somewhat purile journo pissing contest, but regardless of who you believe, next years's E3 is likely to be a much more low-key affair than we're used to hearing about.
Now, I must admit that I've never been to an E3, and so my experience is mostly that of this kind of news item, alongside the more pragmatic accountings of various blogfolk. I have had some pretty hands-on experience with large trade shows in general though, in my day-job, although nothing gaming related, so I can get at least a small inkling of what the thing must be like - time-consuming, too hot, quite expensive, and very difficult to work out if you've made your money back or not when it's over.
At the shows I've been involved with, I got the distinct impression that many of the bigger and more well-known industry names, with their elegantly overblown architectural fantasies of stands, were almost trapped - by their own prestige and reputations, into pouring far more money into the shindig, than they could realistically expect returned in sales and new business, and were infact, having to take the hit, just to keep up with the Joneses. I'm not sure if it's so different in the gaming industry.
I can entirely believe then, the idea of growing disatisfaction with the E3 format by the larger exhibitors. Add to that the perennial complaints I see mentioned; too crowded, bad access, too loud, too many people who have no real business being there, not enough access for people who should be there, booth babes, etc, etc, and it wouldn't be suprising at all if many of The Names just decided it wasn't worth the effort anymore.
Perhaps this is a good parting of the ways anyway. Some of the Slashdot commenters are suggesting that Penny Arcade's PAX event (and similar 'cons) would be more suitable to showcase new products to the fans, while for the Serious Folks, proper conferences like GDC and the like would better suit their requirements. And indeed, SOE's recent 'Block Party' shows that going it alone is eminently viable for those companies geographically fortunate. I'm not sure a CCP or FunCom Block Party would work quite as well, mind you.
(Check out The Podnostigator's latest for coverage of that, by the way, here: Virgin Worlds Podcast #20 - it sounds like the event is pretty much exactly what most fans going to SOE at E3 are looking for.)
I think I'd like to have seen one - seen what all the fuss is about, but then again, it's exactly this kind of thinking that seems to have caused a lot of the troubles in the past - too many people want a peek. The show is twelve years old apparently - this too could be part of the problem. Internet 1994 was a very different place, and perhaps there are simply too many gamers, and game companies around now, for one single kind of event to work anymore.
Maybe we need a MMO Event of our own anyway, so the sound of our brave Developers is not drowned out by the usual apocalyptic rumbling of two or more 'next-next-next-gen' gaming consoles we may or may not be interested in, crashing overhead in the main hall, like immense badly animated Ray Harryhausen monsters. Don't know about anyone else, but I only follow this stuff for the MMOs anyway. Mostly though, I'm happy enough to read about it all, and wait for it to turn up in my local game shop. Los Angeles is a very long way away...
Look out for the official ESA announcement, complete with all kinds of spin most likely, tomorrow...