| E3 | |
|---|---|
| Status | Active |
| Genre | Multi-genre |
| Venue | Varies |
| Location | Varies |
| Country | United States |
| First held | 1995 |
| Organizer | Entertainment Software Association |
| Filing status | Non-profit |
| Attendance | 40,000+ (industry registration only) 1995–2006, 2009–present 3,000–5,000 (invite only) 2007–2008 |
| Official website | E3 Expo |
The Electronic Entertainment Expo, commonly known as E3, is an annual trade fair for the computer and video games industry presented by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA). It is used by many video game developers to show off their upcoming games and game-related hardware.
E3 is widely considered to be the ultimate expo in the video game industry[1] and major video game critics routinely document the event and sometimes even provide a series of E3 awards. Video game companies generally spend more on their presentations for E3 than any other convention. Major video game critics often have a "best of E3" award session (similar to end-of-year award sessions), and only E3 consistently features such awards.
Unlike Gamescom and other video game trade fairs that allow the public to attend, E3 was transformed into invitation-only in 2007 and 2008. A separate conference called the Entertainment for All Expo was held those years to accommodate the public demand for a major, annual video game event. However, it did not replicate E3's success and was abandoned.
E3 is commonly held in late May or early June of each year at the Los Angeles Convention Center (LACC) in Los Angeles, and was held there from June 7 to June 9 in 2011. In 2007, the convention was exceptionally held from July 11 to July 13 in Santa Monica, California. E3 2012 will be held on June 5-7 at the Los Angeles Convention Center.
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Prior to E3, most game developers went to other trade shows to display new products, including the Consumer Electronics Show and the European Computer Trade Show.
The first E3 was conceived by IDG's Infotainment World and co-founded by the Interactive Digital Software Association (now the Entertainment Software Association). It coincided with the start of a new generation of consoles, with the release of the Sega Saturn, and the announcements of upcoming releases of the PlayStation, Virtual Boy and Neo-Geo CD. Specifications for the Nintendo Ultra 64 (later renamed Nintendo 64) were released, but there was no hardware shown.
IDSA originally asked CES for a private meeting space for game developers, but was told that they could not limit access to only invited registrants. Patrick Ferrell, CEO of IDG's Infotainment World, had sent his VP Marketing to the meeting, and hearing the result, the management team at Infotainment World immediately announced E3. Needing to insure the full backing of the industry, Ferrell then negotiated a partnership between IDG and the IDSA, who then co-produced the show for a number of years
The event ran from May 11 through May 13, 1995 in Los Angeles, California. Keynote speakers included Sega of America, Inc. president and CEO Thomas Kalinske; Sony Electronic Publishing Company president Olaf Olafsson; and Nintendo chairman Howard Lincoln. The first show was one of the largest trade show launches in history, with over 1.2 million feet of show space and over 80,000 attendees.
The 2007 show was housed in suites and meeting rooms in numerous hotels in the Santa Monica area, within walking distance of each other. The Barker Hangar was used for showcasing software.
When held in Los Angeles, the show was exhibited over five halls: Kentia, Petree, South Hall, Concourse Hall, and the West Hall. Booth space was purchased ahead of time by publishers. Some publishers, in turn, spent millions of dollars creating elaborate displays and structures to accommodate the promotion of their bigger titles.
While E3 was noted as being noisy and busy, sound levels are not what they once were; in recent years (2005, 2006), publishers like EA have kept their sound down compared to years directly before. At one point, sound levels would fluctuate as exhibitors raised the volume to compete with nearby stands. Shouting was common at some stands. Meanwhile, in 2006, when attendance went down by 10,000, according to the organizers, it was a planned move as industry accreditation was stringently checked.
Different booths would also invite celebrities over for signings for their specific games. For 2004, Activision brought in Stan Lee and Tony Hawk to promote X-Men Legends and Tony Hawk's Underground 2 respectively while Vivendi Universal Games brought in Vin Diesel to promote his new game The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay, a prequel to the summer 2004 film. Celebrities were generally only available for a few hours, so line-waiting was a general practice at E3.
The external apparatus that connects the bigger halls is the Concourse Hall and subsequently, the West Hall and South Hall lobbies. The lobbies were used for registration, picking up badges and badge holders, and other general information. Bag stands and the daily magazine were available in the lobbies. The lobbies were also the signature glass structures of the LACC.
The largest ship of the LACC and the largest exhibition space by default. Microsoft and many of the largest Western developers from North America and Europe generally found their homes here.
The second smallest and smallest ship respectively. The RMN Petree was the indefinite home to Atari and Midway's massive booths. The RMN Kentia was generally used by smaller developers who could not afford the hefty fees of having a booth 'planetside'. As a result, the look of the RMN Kentia at E3 was similar to that of a bazaar.
The RMN "West Hall" was used by the biggest publishers from Asia. Nintendo and Sony's booths are normally located here. The RMN "West Hall" was also normally temporarily home to private press rooms. The rooms were used by TV studios, or large gaming media outlets such as IGN, 1UP.com, GameSpy, and GameSpot.
In addition to the physical event, E3 supports or is otherwise associated with a number of online sites. One site introduced in 2006 was E365,[2] an online community which attendees use to pre-network and schedule meetings with one another.
Many websites and blogs have a history of providing extensive coverage of E3 with live webcasts, game previews, game media and blog entries covering popular press events. Some of the more popular sites include (but are not limited to) Giant Bomb, IGN, GameSpot, ScrewAttack, Kotaku, 1UP.com, Blistered Thumbs, GamesRadar, Machinima and GameTrailers.
On site, the event is covered by professional journalists from around the world. Proof of credentials are verified before the event or on-site. Originally E3 was almost entirely dominated by print games journalists, the event eventually came to include general and specialist TV crews, newspaper journalists, website journalists, and "fansite" journalists. Many of these attendees came with consumer-level digital video and photograph cameras.
On behalf of the organizers, Future Publishing now publishes the free official daily magazine, named in 2006 as The 2006 Official Show Daily. Previously published by Ziff Davis under "SHOWDAILY", the magazine provides news, and maps of the show floor.
Traditionally, many of the media outlets give out Best of E3 awards in various categories. Common categories include Best of Show, Best Trailer, Best Original Game, Best PS3 Game, Best Xbox 360 Game, Best Action Game, Best Hardware, etc. Of the awards, the most prestigious is the Best of Show of the Game Critics Awards.
G4 has aired live coverage of each E3 from 2005 to 2011, covering three hours a day over 4 days in the week of the event.
An episode of The Showbiz Show featured Andrew Daly getting live coverage from E3. Liana K also hosted a special called Geek-o-rama for CHCH-TV, which featured her at the E3 expo.
According to Game Informer, video game companies Activision and Vivendi Games have broken away from ESA.[3][4] In an interview with Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick, when asked why the company left the ESA, he stated that they "have [their] own issues that are not the industry's issues" and that they need their own executive to deal with the government instead of the ESA.[5] However Activision continues to attend and showcase its games at the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2009, Electronic Entertainment Expo 2010 and Electronic Entertainment Expo 2011 while the other half of the company, Blizzard Entertainment, no longer attends the show and hosts its own event called BlizzCon.
In 1996, IDG and the IDSA trialed a Japanese version of E3, in preparation for a worldwide series of events, at the Makuhari Messe in Tokyo (as E3/Tokyo '96) in association with TV Asahi. The show was originally going to be sponsored by Sony Computer Entertainment but their support was pulled in favour of their own PlayStation Expo. Sega also pulled out of attending at the last minute, leaving Nintendo as the only one of the 'big three' to appear. Running between the 1st of November and 4th of November 1996, the combination of several other gaming expos and the lack of support from Japanese game manufacturers meant the turnout was reported as 'poor', and as such no further E3/Tokyo events have taken place. Rumoured E3 events that were to occur in Singapore and Canada were also cancelled.[6]
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