There’s no getting around the fact that we’re in the age of Summer Game Festival. E3 has been confirmed dead — video game publishers have taken the opportunity to host separate events and livestreams, a departure from what was once the industry’s singular summer trade show. As the sun beats down on an E3-less Los Angeles, video game executives involved in the show reflect on the event’s life and death.
The information comes from a lengthy article on Gamesindustry.biz , which is filled with interviews with several video game industry giants, including Tom Kalinskie (formerly of Sega of America), Peter Moore, and former PlayStation of America head Steve Race.
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This article provides a thorough, first-hand account of the value of the early days of E3, especially during an era of intense competition between the Xbox 360, PS3, and Nintendo Wii.
“E3 is the battleground of the console wars,” Moore said in the article. “‘Who won E3?’ is the question people always want to know. Who had the best press conference? Who had the most engaging content? Who had the biggest audience? This is a battle for leadership in an industry that is growing exponentially. E3 is both the battleground and the canvas on which we paint our industry.”
Moore will go on to nostalgically reminisce about the tug-of-war between these big video game console manufacturers, taking us back to the infamous tattoo stunt he pulled off live on stage and other key moments in the show’s history. “It was a real battle. If you go back and see me with the Halo 2 tattoo, or later the GTA 4 tattoo… I just went at PlayStation with a bit of Scouser aggression. PlayStation had made a complete bullshit trailer for Killzone and we knew that. They knew they needed to fight back because we were ahead of them with the Xbox 360 launch. So they made a movie and implied that this was what the game was going to look like, which of course it wasn’t.”
Robert Matthews, a former Nintendo executive who worked on E3 during the Wii era, also shared some interesting anecdotes. “The main way to get into the E3 show floor was that people had to go around the Sony booth to get to our booth. I was on the upper level when the doors opened, and I remember there was a huge line of people walking through the Sony booth, lining up to try out the Wii for the first time. I was like, ‘Wow, we have something special here.'”
The first half of this article looks back at E3’s history and its finest moments, while the second half dissects E3’s eventual decline and demise. Shifting priorities, the coronavirus pandemic, and cost were all important factors in E3’s demise.
Sony legend and frequent E3 spokesman Shawn Layden spoke to GI.biz about some of the problems with attending E3. “The planning is very onerous, so canceling E3 saved the industry thousands of man-hours. Normally when you write demo code for E3, it’s not game code, it’s a standalone piece of work that you write specifically for that show. Then you throw it away and go back to work on the main game.”
Several interviewees, including Layden, also pointed out that shows like E3 became less important in later years as the media landscape changed. “It became just a show-off event for big companies. It also no longer had as much media influence because everyone was breaking the embargo and the media was breaking news 24 hours a day… By 2015, E3 had lost its meaning as a trade show because no trade actually took place.”
These are just a few snippets from a very in-depth article that’s definitely worth a read for those who want a comprehensive look at the life and death of gaming’s biggest trade show. Do you have any fond memories of E3? Let us know below!
