14 DAY TRIAL // All is not well when it comes to E3, which took place last week in its usual Los Angeles setting. More and more industry leaders are expressing public discontent regarding the way the show is run and most are pointing an accusatory finger at the Entertainment Software Association.
John Riccitiello, Chief Executive Officer at Electronic Arts, declared, "I hate E3 like this" and then he added that "Either we need to go back to the old E3, or we'll have to have our own private events".
Laurent Detoc, who heads the United States division of Ubisoft, stated that "E3 this year is terrible. The world used to come to E3. Now it's like a pipe-fitters show in the basement".
And it seems they are not the only two people concerned about the state of the trade show. Activision Blizzard stepped out of it this year, after having left the Entertainment Software Association, and staged a parallel press conference. Blizzard and other companies are already organizing events like the Worldwide Invitational, where they want to stage more elaborate shows that are aimed at the general public as much as at industry insiders.
There are voices arguing that what made E3 special and interesting were the mass attendance and its sheer power of enthusiasm. After last year, when the show was open to only a select few, less than 5,000 people in total, publisher and developers understood that there's no point announcing new and exciting projects at E3 because the public impact would be limited. This year's edition was extremely dull, with the new projects announced, like MAG, Lips or Wii Music, lacking the impact of titles previewed last year such as GTA IV or Call of Duty 4.
It might just be that the videogame industry needs a new slate when it comes to trade shows and this could be translated into not seeing an E3 in 2009.