Reports Put E3 on Death's Door

No press conferences, no games, no booth babes - say it ain't so, ESA.

For the past 12 years, game makers have lived for one event: the annual Electronic Entertainment Expo. The show has grown bigger each year, in both attendance and importance. No more. According to word on the street, E3 will be killed on Monday.

Will this year's event turn out to be the last?

The Electronic Software association, which puts on the event, will announce on Monday that E3 has had its legs chopped off, according to a report at US site GameSpot. According to GameSpot, the event "would radically shrink in size and move from its usual Los Angeles Convention Center venue to a smaller location."

All the major publishers have pulled out of E3, according to a separate report at Next Generation, which also says, "the larger exhibitors have jointly decided that the costs of the event do not justify the returns, generally measured in media exposure."

According to Next Generation, E3 as we know it today is dead, and anything that comes afterwards will be E3 in name only.

The report goes on to say that, "publishers believe the multi-million dollar budgets would be better spent on more company-focused events that bring attention to their own product lines rather than the industry as a whole."

According to some observers, the collapse of the show could be the result of big exhibitors such as Sony and EA getting enough out of the immense financial layout. Sony, especially, was hard hit after what many considered to be an unimpressive showing in the year of its biggest hardware launch ever.

What does this mean for you? A great deal, actually. If E3 goes, so too does one of the most recognized barometers of the health of the games industry. The event served as a showcase of not only the biggest games from the biggest publishers but also the biggest surprises from small publishers. With the big publishers allegedly pulling out, the smaller outfits too had nowhere to go but out.

The ESA is expected to make a full announcement on Monday.

Alex Wollenschlaeger
Editor, Kikizo Games