Thats what I like to know, wouldn't that be a simple solution? TGS has done it all this time.

If it's money they're worried about, they should just hold in an old gutted ice cream van. Four 34cm TVs set up, the latest video game machines hooked up to them via RF, maybe a My First Rappin' Fun Time microphone taped to the mono speaker to pick up the rich audio and boom it out of a nearby portable radio covered in paint and dust.

Everyone gets five minutes, then the janitor whacks you in the knees with his mop until you move on and let the next person have a go. Perhaps the janitors wife could stand around and pose a bit, just hope her teeth don't fall out as the camera goes off! E3 swag? They could have some some bins full of one hundred percent real garbage!

"Get your Phantom cola, get your Phantom cola!"
"But, but this is just a soiled pair of undies"
"AND YOU ONLY GET ONE, NOW GET OUT"

As it has been said before around the internets...I'm sure EA had something to do with it.

Dont worry guys, they will made it again, but with another name and much less money, thats for sure.

Well, if I remember E3 this year, they didn't have booth babes. That was pretty pointless and I don't think that changed anything, but it's the first sign of budget cuts.

I'm not sure how E3 2k7 would work. By that time, the PS3 and Wii will be released, so the surge of information would be huge. They're probably smart to pull out beforehand. I'm not really phased since we're on the internet. There's places like gametrailers and gamespot for information, and anyone with half a brain can visit them.

E3 has just become too damn big. It's no more an exclusive glimpse of the gaming underground and what is to come, than it has become a my dick is bigger showoff comedyshow.

Oh, and the booth babes was banned because the focus was diverted from what it's actually all about.

Eh, I always found E3 to be a fun time to be on the internets, but I won't be entirely too distraught to see it go. It's not like I go there. I get all the info I need from IGN during the show anyway. And I don't know why the journalists in the industry are bitching about it being too much work for them, their fucking job is to play video games and write about them. They need to get over it and quit bitching.

I'll be pretty disppointed if E3 does go. Though I never went there, getting all that info in a short period is alot of fun. It's definitely one of my favorite times of the year.

While having each company hold its own event is great for the company, it won't get nearly as much interest as E3 would. Microsoft and EA spend alot on their yearly events, but no one cares.

Crap if it closes. I wanted to try it out, but haven't got the opportunity yet. Budget cuts wouldn't be bad though. Booth babes was distracting, and all the silly teenagers who should be there do to their jobs in Game's R Us and various game stores really didn't help. What about returning the expo to the roots? ONLY journalists and developers?

So… what's your point? That anyone who plays video-games could be a good game journalist, and their job is extremely easy? That's about as true as game tester being some sort of a dream job.

The official word...

So essentially, it'll be becoming slightly more similar to GDC but for the media?

Sounds like we'll still get all the cool info we usually get, but no booth babes, convention hall, or wacky publicity stunts (see: NCSoft).

The information is all I want out of it, especially since I expect Nintendo and Sony to have a fair amount of information to provide next year, mainly in regards to their new consoles' upcoming games. So, in short, this sounds like a welcome change to me.

Are you being serious? My point is, they don't exactly have it as tough as they're making it out to be. They have a few really rough weeks out of the whole year, and during that week, they get to play all the new games and then write about them. That's a pretty gnarly job if you ask me.

Video game journalists can moan and complain as much as they want, but they have it extremely easy compared to regular newspaper journalists.

As for E3, it is unfortunate. However, if they do plan on just using the event to release information without all of the flair, then I'm fine with it.

At least they're not in Iraq covering the event. I knew an editor at Gamespot, besides being sleep deprived for a week and not being able to go to parties, overall, it's a really nice job if you're into that kind of stuff. It's not glamourous, but yeah, they really can't complain.

I'm kind of glad they're downsizing. I heard that some of the major players at E3 are backing out next year since they aren't making money. Well, if they didn't take up frickin' half the floor space.... at least now an "appointment" would actually be a sit down appointment vs here's the game, that guy over there will show you how to play it.

GDC might be the place to be, which I don't mind since it's closer ;) I'm actually looking forward to E3 if it's going to be scaled back, maybe then I'll get a chance to actually check out stuff from smaller developers instead of having to go around the crowds hovering around Sony.

Well, all I can say is that it's the end of a kind of half dream for me - I'd always wanted to go there, but maybe it's is just gotten too big for it's britches. In any case, if it gives game companies more time to work properly and not have to worry so much aobut getting content ready for the show, it might be a good thing. But at the same time, having shows where you could show content to vast audiences like that really lends the industry a sense of legitimacy that might otherswise be lacking.

It seems they changed the name to E3Expo now. I guess their redundancy check is switched off.

Joystiq link.

Electronic Entertainment Expo... Expo. Yeah.

The real question is if this is a sign of portent about the industry as a whole (which could do with some significant downsizing, I admit), or if this is just because the major supporters ended up spending millions for what amounted to relatively weak advertising and PR. (Especially in the case of Sony this year).

Oh well. I'm sure fan-shows like PAX and the gaming section of stuff like comicon will grow to at least somewhat fill up this void.

Edit:

It is interesting to note though that there are theories flying about that the main groups who pushed the ESA into downsizing the show are also the ones who got the worst PR this year. People are saying that with a smaller show, you can control who has access to what content and only allow a site to have an exclusive in exchange for a positive reaction to it.

I never thought of it that way, and I'd prefer not to, but it's also something that could theoretically take place. I guess we'll have to wait and see if such fears are warranted.

Well it seems that the board of E3 has come to a final conclusion on the issue. It seems that while there will NOT be an E3 anymore, it will still live on, just in a different form that's all. Instead of a huge floor where no one EVER got to see everything due to the masses of sweaty obsticales blocking your every move, E3 will now take place simply on the internet for EVERYONE to enjoy.

While this will suck for the few who actually were able to go to E3 every year, this will benefeit the general public. And personally this is how I've experianced E3 every year anyway. This just means that I will no longer have to pay for a membership to IGN in order to get decent resolution coverage of the show.

For more info go here -> http://www.theesa.com/archives/2006/...mmediate_r.php
*This post has not been spell checked*

Good riddance to a scam with all the fibre and substance of a Big Mac. I guess we'll have to wait a coupla weeks longer for news of those killer apps worth 7/10 that end up launching eighteen months late anyhow.

Oh well. I wish I could've at least gone to one E3 but now my dream will not be realized.

Does that mean we don't have to put up with the "who won E3 this year?" crap anymore? Good!

Hideo Kojima won't be happy, he'll be stuck with the Tokyo Game Show to show off his next three hour movie of MGS4's new features! TGS is nothing compared to E3!

"As you can see here Solid Snake now has seventy thousand more polygons in his eyelids"
"WOW TAMAGOTCHI 2!"