Dcubed Posted March 11, 2020 Posted March 11, 2020 1 hour ago, Ronnie said: I've never really understood some people's delight at seeing "E3 is dead", it's a sad time for me. It is sad. The modern version of E3, and the ESA, is a horrible, disgraceful monster that needed to die though. E3 now is not the E3 we used to know and love anymore. Truth be told, E3 died years ago; around the time that Nintendo got out of it and started up their Nintendo Directs, as it became something else entierly. This is just the formal execution now; and it needed to happen. The question now is; how do game publishers and developers adapt? 1
Hero-of-Time Posted March 11, 2020 Posted March 11, 2020 I don't delight in it at all but, as Dcubed said, E3 hasn't been the same for a while. It used to be my gaming Christmas, with me taking the week off work to just sit back and take it all in. That tradition died a couple of years ago now and every year since the show has been getting worse and worse. You also have the ESA trying to force the show into something it's not im order to milk the name of E3. Sad times indeed. 1 1
Hero-of-Time Posted March 11, 2020 Posted March 11, 2020 Phil Spencer has responded to the cancellation of E3. 1
Dcubed Posted March 11, 2020 Posted March 11, 2020 This is well worth mentioning as well. LOTS of industry defining decisions and business deals are made behind closed doors at the E3 event itself... This loss will end up significantly changing the dynamics of the industry (and GDC can only absorb so much of that). 4
Ganepark32 Posted March 11, 2020 Posted March 11, 2020 It's the right call in the current climate. Is it a sad moment for gaming? Sure. Just going off of the back of what's happened with how cancellation of SXSW in Austin, there'll no doubt be lay offs as a result which is never a good things, and especially with the games industry as a whole and the ESA already having let staff go IIRC. Was it needed? I think so. There was so much mirring the event and the direction the current ESA was pushing it in. Last year's debacles surrounding Dr. Disrespect (while they took his badge away, the ESA should have pushed for criminal prosecution over him filming in a bathroom with kids in the background) and the leaking of thousands of journalists personal info was shocking was clearly a nail in the coffin for E3 in it's current guise. Geoff Keighley pulling out from doing the Coliseum and the slow movement away from the event from other publishers and developers and the increase in influencers has meant for a horrible experience on the show floor. I'm hoping they take the time to consider the route forward with the show if they aim to bring it back in 2021. I don't know what to suggest for improving the show other than letting the journalists have their days at the event prior to allowing general public entrance (and that also means withholding influencer attendance until admittance of the general public though that would never happen) like Gamescom has done for years and just generally not pissing off publishers, developers and journalists by trying to push certain agendas. Maybe make some part of it a digital interactive experience or something, I don't know. No doubt we'll see plenty of live streams and digital events over the week that was E3 and surrounding them. More space to present stuff is only a good thing for getting the word out but this invariably hurts indie developers. Hopefully someone like Kinda Funny jumps in again and puts on another digital indie showcase to help there. It certainly changes the timetable for getting info out about next gen. Microsoft will continue with their plans (I'm still adamant they'll launch this October/November even if there is only a small allocation of units) but this does alleviate some of the pressure on Sony for not being there and not getting info out. 1 1
Ashley Posted March 11, 2020 Posted March 11, 2020 If anything I think it (or some kind of successor) could do with just going back to being a trade show of sorts. Get the industry together, but to do business rather than the combination of business, show and public hands on. Publishers and platform holders now have more options to announce/show products to the public so there's less need to do it at E3, other than the 'all eyes are watching' thing (although again that's just the industry/dedicated fans watching, plenty of consumers won't know it's even on). I know E3 has a public hands-on element but it's so limited (ie to those who can afford to go to it) that it wouldn't be a huge loss for that. 1
Helmsly Posted March 11, 2020 Posted March 11, 2020 It’s a shame but it’s the right move. GDC was cancelled the other week and will be showing some of their talks via twitch next week. I’d imagine as far as gaming news and announcements, E3 could do the same.
Julius Posted March 11, 2020 Author Posted March 11, 2020 Stop. Rubbing. Salt. Into. These. Wounds. 1
Helmsly Posted March 11, 2020 Posted March 11, 2020 (edited) I have to assume the trailers and gameplay videos for all these games will still come out in June. Edited March 11, 2020 by Helmsly
Hero-of-Time Posted March 12, 2020 Posted March 12, 2020 Nintendo talked to Gamespot about the cancellation of E3. Quote Nintendo supports the ESA's decision to cancel this year's E3 to help protect the health and safety of everyone in our industry--our fans, our employees, our exhibitors and our longtime E3 partners. We would like to express our concern and support for all those affected by the COVID-19 outbreak during this challenging time. We"ll continue to be flexible and redirect our efforts to other ways of keeping our fans up to date about our activities and products. Because of the COVID-19 outbreak, large industry events may be untenable for the foreseeable future. But we are considering various ways to engage with our fans and will have more to share as the year continues. I don't think it will effect them too much. They will no doubt still do a Direct and the Treehouse segments could be pre-recorded as well. Most of what they show is from their own studios anyway. 1
Will Posted March 12, 2020 Posted March 12, 2020 15 hours ago, Dcubed said: This is well worth mentioning as well. LOTS of industry defining decisions and business deals are made behind closed doors at the E3 event itself... This loss will end up significantly changing the dynamics of the industry (and GDC can only absorb so much of that). This will be by far the biggest loss to any of the smaller companies heading there. Any of the industry events are just huge for finding new business as you can meet people you just wouldn't be able to usually. The loss will be bigger on the GDC side by quite some margin from E3. 15 hours ago, Ashley said: If anything I think it (or some kind of successor) could do with just going back to being a trade show of sorts. Get the industry together, but to do business rather than the combination of business, show and public hands on. Publishers and platform holders now have more options to announce/show products to the public so there's less need to do it at E3, other than the 'all eyes are watching' thing (although again that's just the industry/dedicated fans watching, plenty of consumers won't know it's even on). I know E3 has a public hands-on element but it's so limited (ie to those who can afford to go to it) that it wouldn't be a huge loss for that. I really think they should take it back to what it was when it was an industry-only event. I worked two shows while I was in America, one on the Nintendo booth and the other manning the SEGA business area and attended another two for business. They were great, the booths, the opportunities, the business the random things that happen while you're there. The followingy year they made it public and it turned to crap. Everyone is 'on-show' so you can't be as free with what you're doing, places are crowded with people you don't need to meet - the whole thing became a waste of time and I never went again. 1 1
Julius Posted April 4, 2020 Author Posted April 4, 2020 (edited) IGN have announced that they'll be hosting a digital event in early June, which seems to be the new home for some of the big developers/publishers with no E3 to attend this year. Going to rename this thread now that E3 is cancelled to something more inclusive of all of the news that was clearly intended for this year's E3 (i.e. this event, Xbox's event if it still goes ahead, anything from the other big names like Ubisoft, etc.) that drops in June. Also worth mentioning that Bethesda have announced don't have any plans for a digital event, which I think makes sense at this point: most of their projects announced to this point (Elder Scrolls VI, Starfield, Deathloop, and Ghostwrite: Tokyo) are limited to CG trailers, which means that there would probably be some element of crunch to prepare either a trailer or demo which they're just not well-positioned to put together given everything that is going on with COVID-19. Oh, and the ESA has announced that E3 2021 will take place from June 15th 2021 - June 17th 2021. Yeah, we'll see. Edited April 4, 2020 by Julius 1 1
Map Posted May 1, 2020 Posted May 1, 2020 Wasn’t sure where to put this. Geoffs plans for the summer. 3
Julius Posted May 1, 2020 Author Posted May 1, 2020 Phase One line-up: Goodness knows how many phases there will be, mind. In all likelihood, I'm guessing this will likely either be May or May/June. Interesting nonetheless. I was a bit concerned that everyone doing their own thing might mean some things that might otherwise blow up from the E3 spotlight might now end up flying under the radar, so this seems like a smart move to give everyone a chance of keeping caught up. 2
Dcubed Posted May 1, 2020 Posted May 1, 2020 That's pretty cool. These announcements probably would've been made around then anyway, but it's nice to have some sort of overarching wrapper to help drum up some excitement in E3's absence
Julius Posted May 8, 2020 Author Posted May 8, 2020 Keighley is personally premiering a game this coming Tuesday...
Julius Posted May 11, 2020 Author Posted May 11, 2020 Keighley always cracks me up. Plus, his honesty is always appreciated.
Ganepark32 Posted May 11, 2020 Posted May 11, 2020 Another digital event to add to the list: a 3 day (mostly) indie event from June 6th - 8th called the Guerrilla Collective. With these events coming together to shine lights on all areas of the industry over the next couple of months, this could well be the final nail in the coffin for E3, especially if they all come off well. Personally, I think I'm more excited for the game news in the coming weeks than I have been for an E3 in the last couple of years. Sure, new consoles coming helps somewhat but seeing such a wide swathe of events coming together from different places just means a steady stream of news and means plenty of good stuff will be on the way. So yeah, I can't wait for all these to kick off. 1 1
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