No Cure in Sight For the E3 2008 Hangover

Another E3's come and gone, and that flatline drone you're hearing is the sound of the media, defib paddles in hand, proclaiming that the patient is dead. Well, sort of. You wouldn't know it from all the giddy coverage last week, i.e. the chummy liveblogging and live web video and OMGWTH FINAL FANTASY FOR XBOX 360? bleating. If E3's dead, you've still got an awful lot of gravediggers pitching tents in the cemetery.

In any case, the press this morning is circling around comments Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter just made suggesting that E3 is "headed for extinction, unless the publishers and console manufacturers wake up to the fact that nobody cares about the show anymore."

Writes Pachter:

The show was small in scope, and the spectacle of E3 is dead. The Los Angeles Convention Center concourse was as quiet as a college library during summer, with little to attract media attention. The main game display area was similar in size to a school cafeteria (as compared to filling the entire convention center), and the "fireworks effect" of past shows was reserved for the evening parties.

...We believe that show is ill-timed, coming after most major holiday announcements are out, and landing during “quiet period” for most of the companies (making meetings with investors near-impossible). The lack of a spectacle will likely keep media away in the future, the lack of surprises will keep retailers away, and the lack of interaction with management will likely keep investors away. Without these three constituencies, the show will likely lose its relevance. We strongly believe that E3 should be held no later than early June (when companies can meet with investors and when some “secrets” have yet to be revealed), and believe that the spectacle should be restored by increasing the size of the show space.

He's right, of course, though the notion that we need more spectacle sounds a little too Disney for my blood. Give me boring substantiveness over flashy superficiality any day.

Comments

I tend to agree that E3 is pretty much garbage now. I used to sit around all week refreshing my browser for the latest news. In recent years, I just didn't really care what was going on at E3. Unless they do something to liven up the show, it's a waste of time and money.

You knew they pretty much lost touch with the booth babe decision a couple years ago.

ajshurts

July 21, 2008

4:03 PM PT