Back in July, the Electronic Software Association announced they were going to scale back on their annual electronics/video games convention, E3 (story). Doug Lowenstein, president of the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) has revealed several details about the new, smaller E3 in an interview with GameDaily, and the ESA offered even more details in a press release. The retooled event, titled the E3 Media and Business Summit, will now be invitation-only, held in mid-July, and is shaping up to be exactly what many gamers (and journalists) feared: a chance for the biggest voices in the industry to flaunt their wares to a specific audience of media outlets.
The new E3 (We’ll call it E3-squared) will be hosted from July 11-13 at hotels in the Los Angeles area, and Lowenstein promises it “will combine the best elements of the former trade show into a business event celebrating the video game industry’s present and future… [We are] trying to put together an event that we believe will serve the industry.”
The ESA will open the floodgates to any company wishing to hold conferences a la Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony, some independent media outlets (including GamerNode) could be left in the cold, as it will be each company’s prerogative to set up meetings with media, developers, retailers, and/or publishers. These conferences will compose the bulk of the show, with the E3’s hallmark hands-on chaos relegated to Santa Monica Airport’s Barker Hangar. Attendees will be shuttled between conferences and Barker Hangar.
The hangar, a popular venue for a myriad of shows, will be transformed into a “software showcase where attendees will be able to casually test drive the featured video games planned for the coming holiday season… [in] standardized, turnkey displays ranging from 100 square feet to 400 square feet.”
According to the ESA, “all display areas will be developed by show management to ensure the venue is staged efficiently.” Additionally, each of the conference’s three days will be complete with a lunchtime briefing from an industry executive, analyst, or pseudo-celebrity.
Close readings of Lowenstein’s comments leave little to the imagination. “By combining suite-based meetings with the software showcase in a controlled and business-like environment, we believe we will successfully fulfill our primary objective of giving high-level media the best of all worlds-the chance to engage in highly personal, on-on-one dialogue with leading game company executives, as well as the chance to demo games on their own time.”
Instead of the adrenaline-fueled chaos of the Exposition’s previous years, the ESA plans on a controlled, sharp event that will allow industry heavyweights the maximum amount of influence over the media, while minimizing costs.
Lowenstein resolved, “The new E3 is first and foremost about getting business done. When we asked key audiences what they wanted in the new event, we heard they wanted opportunities for high-level meetings in a business-like setting… The new E3 event will be more personal, efficient and focused, and it will provide the top stakeholders who make games, sell games, and cover games streamlined access to the people and products they most need to see.”
The ESA expects that event booking will launch by the next month. GamerNode will have more information as it develops.
