Should they make a comeback?
How big of a waste of time was E3 this year? Watching the coverage on G4, you’d think something important was happening. Maybe FPS With Different Shades of Brown 87 still interests y’all, but I’d say the show was rather bland.
Even Electronic Arts, everyone’s favorite giant of a publisher, agrees that the show has lost its luster, saying that the show’s new format, shall we say, stinks on ice:
I hate E3 like this. Either we need to go back to the old E3, or we’ll have to have our own private events.
Thus spoke EA CEO John Riccitiello. Only 5,000 people showed up to the event this ear, whereas in years past it drew somewhere around the 60,000 mark. So, EA is saying, essentially, bring on “da noize,” or we’ll just rent out some hotel’s event space for our own purposes. That’s all well and good for the big publishers, but what about the little guy?
Even Ubisoft harshed on the show this year.
Said the company’s North American president, Laurent Detoc:
E3 this year is terrible. The world used to come to E3. Now it’s like a pipe-fitters show in the basement.
Yikes, don’t get on his bad side!
Now, if I remember correctly, wasn’t it the likes of EA & Co. who threatened to pull out of the show a few years ago, saying it was too expensive? All of a sudden they want the craziness back?