I find this hard to believe, but maybe it's true... Comdex deserved its fate, but E3? -Auri
Say it ain't so! One of the most important technology and entertainment trade shows in the world,
E3,
has apparently been killed -- at least according to Next Generation.
Apparently trustworthy sources have been in touch and gave them the
word that publishers are getting tired of spending millions of dollars
to one up each other in front of the press and retailers, and might
prefer to use that money to better their own campaigns and smaller,
more focused shows
instead of
grandstanding on the E3
show floor. The firestorm that supposedly led to the impending collapse of
E3
may have been brought on by a number of large exhibitors jumping ship,
which caused smaller companies to do the same (we'll save the finger
pointing for now). Frankly, in our opinion the whole matter is a double
edged sword. Yes, massive industry events are often better at sorting
companies with and without stellar marketing budgets than the wheat
from the chaff, so to speak, but it's also a necessary evil. It's
simply not always feasible for hundreds of companies to round up retail
professionals and game journalists the world over to show off new
product in bits and pieces throughout the year every year -- which is
why we have massive shows like
CTIA, E3,
CES,
CeBIT,
etc. Then again, we shouldn't get too ahead of ourselves here; the
death of E3 has yet to be confirmed (and might be greatly exaggerated),
so we'll have to wait until Monday before we can expect to hear either
way from the Entertainment Software Association, the organization we
hope won't be burying our second favorite show of like, all time.
Read the full article here.
Source: Joystiq via Engadget