Comments on: Three Thoughts on Losing E3

By: none

none — Thu, 03 Aug 2006 18:19:50 +0000

Less Babes? Less Gamers?

You do mean "fewer," right?

By: JanSolo

JanSolo — Thu, 03 Aug 2006 15:53:44 +0000

Ahhh but Microsoft has vowed to use all they have learned from their console wars to make Vista and the PC market that much better of a gaming platform. From not having to load games and running them direct from disc to automagically patching them over the interweb.

I think what has happened to the PC gaming market is quite obvious to anyone who is actually involved with it: Blizzard released World of Warcraft and it's now killing the rest of the pc gaming market, leaving all the other PC game companies to fight for the rest of the folks who have yet to discover Blizzard's new comuter operating system, er massively multiplayer online game. As a serious (but recovering) addict of this game, I can tell you that it can suck the very need to eat and sleep right from you. Ask the Sony folks what it's like to compete against Blizzard in this space and they will tell you tales of battle wounds, lost customers and price drops that have failed to garner more sales.

Christmas won't be that bad for PC gaming so long as the new World of Warcraft expansion pack comes out on time. :-)

By: John

John — Thu, 03 Aug 2006 00:30:57 +0000

PG full price games sales DOWN. Electronic Arts: $48 million loss for the last quarter. Console game sales flatlining. New PC sales in the home market down 35% in 2 years. Number of print PC gaming magazines down 40% in 3 years. Specific PC gaming websites, disappeared in the last 2 years. PC gaming chart, cannot be found anywhere anymore (unless you look really really hard). Quality of PC games, DOWN. Value of PC games DOWN. (3 years ago any $40 game with less than 30 hours of gameplay was seen as poor value, now we get a 5 hour game Half Life Episode 2 that costs up to $30 in various markets and other games that have less than 15 hours gameplay for $50. 'Casual' (mainstream) gamers are not buying into it, and casual gamers buy 73% of all full price PC games and 88% of budget releases.

Pc gaming has about 18 months left to run. You only have to look at the death of Xmas PC releases for this Xmas season to see the writings on the wall.

By: EP

EP — Wed, 02 Aug 2006 12:16:02 +0000

I dont know if it is such a loss…besides some other conference will take its place pretty soon.

By: Paul Jardine

Paul Jardine — Wed, 02 Aug 2006 10:25:15 +0000

I’ve been thinking about organising a Conference out here in Bangkok, Thailand where every delegate gets their very own booth babe (or boy) as part of the welcome pack. That way you don’t have to wander around finding the best booths.
It will free up more time for interaction between delegates, allow more arm-waving (as they can carry your drink for you) and hugely increase the amount of freebies that you can carry out of the conference.
Anyone who can think of a viable theme for this conference (except Mark Cuban) can have a job, for very low wages, organising it!

By: Lord Pi

Lord Pi — Wed, 02 Aug 2006 10:13:12 +0000

I concur with the latter two points. It'll be interesting how smaller and foreign publishers/developers will survive in the 'intimate boys club' E3.

It'll also be interesting to see if PAX scales up to embrace the gamer population, or if a new convention is launched to fill the void.

By: Silk

Silk — Wed, 02 Aug 2006 09:36:23 +0000

Actually the problem with the ‘gamer-less’, downscaling and relocation of the curvacious factor as you so judisciously put it, does nothing to solve the percieved problems with E3. It will do absolutely nothing to to help it and everything to destroy it. The equation is rather simple, what E3 doesnt have someone else, somewhere will. That someone else will gain in popularity in the ‘gamers’ market, those buggers that pay for games, chat on the internet in massive numbers, have parents who listen to them, and god forbid even work in the industry. Meanwhile, a few prudish tech geeks like yourself sit in your little offices, clapping yourselves on the backs for a rather sterile E3 that only YOU wish to see.
Because with the advent of the communication technology that is now avilable out there, who even needs E3, except as a huge showcase of colour and sound and the expereince. Like an electronic Disneyland for young and old alike. Otherwise why bother? Just place web cams around a storehouse and show off the products from the factory sites. Ergo, no need for E3!
E3 needs to be an expereince open for all in every way, to titillate the senses, the minds and NEEDS the WOW! factor. It needs to be bigger and brighter and an event that boggles the mind in so many ways. If it needs to possibly incorporate circus acts and a car show, candy floss and clowns so be it to keep people wanting to come back to it for several days. Electronics are in everything we virtually use today, so you can showcase just about anything at it! Animatronics, cars, planes, games, software, computers and accesories..You name it…it should be showcased and possibly even worked into different locations and themes.
Don’t bore buyers and sellers to death as well as the customers, make it an expereince for all to enjoy!
It should be an event everyone wants to see and not ‘have’ to go to it because their job demands it. Remember the old world trade fair events showcasing the future, you see sometimes in old TV shows, well thats what E3 should be. It should be about how the products can be the expereince (even fantasy) you will live. I think over all the one word I am looking for for E3 for be is ‘fun’.
Statistics come on sheets, fun comes by living the expereince. People (the consumer and buyers) want to ‘buy’ that expereince and own it.
Not to be bored to tears by it.