What Shall Replace E3?
The Blind Eternities forum
Posted on Dec. 17, 2023, 12:43 p.m. by DemonDragonJ
E3 had been dwindling for years, but it now has officially been retired, which is a major loss for the video gaming industry, so I wonder what shall replace it, what the new major event in video gaming shall be, since I imagine that there are people who shall wish to fill the void that E3 has left.
What does everyone else say about this? What shall replace E3 as the major video gaming event of the year?
DemonDragonJ says... #3
Caerwyn, I find that to be a horrible display of ego and arrogance; by having all the major companies at one event, they learned to cooperate and share space, but each company having its own event will lead them to believe that they can do anything and get away with it.
I do hope that other events, for smaller companies, shall continue to be held, since I wish to support those companies as much as I can.
December 18, 2023 5:53 p.m.
I think you are vastly overestimating E3 as an accountability tool. E3 was absolutely full of vapourware, absolutely full of carefully controlled demos with excellent, polished graphics… that did not match the graphics delivered when the product launched. Companies were easily able to “do anything and get away with it” at E3, so nothing has really changed on that front.
I also think saying it is arrogant or egotistical to leave E3 looks a bit like you are trying to get outraged for the sake of being outraged. E3 has been a sinking ship for years, with decreased relevance. It is hardly arrogant to say, “huh, maybe it is time to build my own ship, rather than to keep bailing out this sinking one.”
December 18, 2023 6:53 p.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #5
Caerwyn, yes, I suppose that that makes sense, but I cannot understand why everyone took such a pessimistic attitude and acted as if E3's demise was inevitable, rather than attempting to repair and fix the event before it was too badly broken.
Caerwyn says... #2
E3 already has been mostly replaced - that is why it is dying. Trade shows exist to increase your presence while minimising costs - by being in the same place, a bunch of smaller companies can all share in advertising costs, and can all ride the same wave of interest to mutually greater ends.
When gaming was a smaller-scale hobby, the trade shows were useful - gaming was not drawing large attention, so it made sense for gaming companies to make something extravagant so all eyes would be on the industry.
But gaming is not small or niche anymore, with millions upon millions of gamers globally.
Nintendo was the first to realise they had enough individual followers that they did not need a trade show to draw eyes - they could do their own event, advertising only themselves, and they would both draw enough hype to be worth their time and would not be using their own hype to draw eyes to competitors (after all, if Bob is at a tradeshow to see Nintendo projects, but there are other projects there, Bob might get distracted by the rival company).
Other companies have now reached the size where they can do that also. All the big names in gaming left E3 to do their own (all rather successful) individual shows. These individual shows replaced E3, resulting in the eventual death of E3 due to no longer having its headliners/major funders.
The only thing that is not super covered are the smaller, indie developers who could ride the coattails of large companies and use the press larger companies generated for E3 to promote their own products. I expect the final stage of replacing E3 will be the rise of a smaller indie game tradeshow to fill this gap.
December 18, 2023 10:01 a.m.