Ladies and gentlemen... boys and girls... it is my sad duty, and with a heavy heart, that I pass along the news to you all. One of the most important gaming industry's yearly events, the E3 Expo is officially DEAD. The news has been circulating like wildfire this morning and it is official. In an announcement made by Douglas Lowenstein, president of the ESA (the company that puts E3 on), he stated that it was "no longer necessary or efficient" to have a single mega event for the industry. A sad attempt to save face due to the fact that vendors and developers have been jumping ship from the Expo ever since this year's E3. The straw that broke the camel's back had to be the pullout of EA. With such a big company leaving the event, it would be impossible to replace the almost football field sized booth they provided and the sheer amount of games and presence the company supplied to the event. What will become of E3 next is yet to be seen, in the press statements already released by ESA they assure us that E3 will continue, but in a much more "intimate and personalized" event. Translation, "it's way way smaller because no one's going to be there." They also say that it will "focus on small meetings" and it "will not feature the large trade show environment." So the mega-scale video game event that everyone has grown to know and love, whether it be from the trade show floor personally, or from the comfort of your couch is no more. Rather than seeing the enormity of the Los Angeles Convention Center filled with insanely huge displays, 100 foot video screens, football field sized booths, hundreds of playable demos due out a year later, dozens of booth babes, and attendees measuring in the tens of thousands... you will now get, a few companies, no video screens, no big booths, no little booths, no booth babes, no displays, no playable demos, and no attendees (try somewhere between 200 and 400 people). Goodbye E3, how I loved thee, you shall be missed.
Check out these news stories for more info:
CNet's E3 story
Next Generation's E3 story
IGN's E3 story
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