[...] Release date: TBA | Platforms: PC | Official Site Link: E3 Expo Official Site Link: New E3 Format Leaves Some GameCo’s Cold @ GamePolitics.com Link: Countdown to E3 @ GamesIndustry.biz Link: E3 2007 @ GameSpot Link: IGN.com E3 Central    By Tiago Sá at July 9th, 2007       [...]

I'm looking forward to hearing how this E3 goes ... and I'm glad that the cut back scale means I don't have to go this year. My product team is presenting a game this year and it will be the first time that anyone has seen actual game content for it.

I'm glad that I don't have to stand on my feet in in front of of a video monitor and demo the same 5 minutes of game play over and over and over.

I'm happy not to be shoving my way through crowds of people who have no business being at the show other than to say they've been, many who consider their blogsites and fanboy web pages to be actual contributions to game critique and journalism (present site excepted).

I'm glad I don't have to try and sell a product to people who can't understand me or even hear me when I speak ... and when they ask questions, I can neither understand their take on English nor even hear them over the din of some meaningless (but allegedly hip) noise blasting out of an adjacent booth.

I'm glad my employer isn't blowing millions of dollars on media and messages that have no real effect, other than line the pockets of hotels and restaurants in Los Angeles. That same money can now be used to buy real advertising, real exposure, real promotions targeted on the people who will put the product in their stores and the people who will eventually buy and enjoy the game I'm creating.

E3 is still an important show, but it takes its place as one of several now, not the ultimate or end all. My project team put in no less effort for this than if the show was like the E3 of old. What's truly different is that the guys showing the game have only one mission at E3 ... show our game ... not see the show, or get drunk after hours and show up late for demo sessions, or get their picture taken with out of work C and D list actresses or actors trying to get some nostalgia tour work going, or to get invites to the Sony or Microsoft parties. They are on mission to show and sell our game.

Hopefully, the the people seeing our game demonstrated in our showroom will be for similar reasons. Hopefully they'll be there because they care enough about seeing it to schedule time for it. They'll get the full message we want them to get about our game, not a few minutes caught in passing, distracted by hip hop dancers, flying skateboards, or goofy web media "reporters" telling stories about their adventures as they navigate E3.

That's my rant. This format works for the Toy industry. Let's let it work for the digital game industry too.

@Terrible Tom

Austin GDC is great. I went last year but am not sure if I will make it this year. But if you have no interest in the makings of MMOs, game audio or game writing, then it is not the place for you. I went for the writing parts and loved every minute. We even got to see a sneak peak at Mass Effect.

I think the old E3s problem was that rules were not really followed and you had so many pubs/devs tryign to out do each other,E3 only needed stricter rules and more fines,its large and mess but unlike car shows they only have the top X amount of makers to show their stale old cars,gaming had a huge amount of makers pubs and others,the new E3 is pointless as a high end only event they should merge it with pax (the E3 "staff" helps pax with the large corporations and stuff with them).

Pax runs the event and the E3 staff can be cut down to simple middle man work.

this E3 might teach the industry a lesson to learn if they still care.

at least .hack Redemption is going to be at the show... Gamespot and IGN said so, so I have no reason to doubt them.

They'll either bring the old E3 back or we're moving it to PAX. I prefer the old E3 only because it always sounded like a madhouse of awesome.

Ha.

That's all there is to it, HA.

It figures I'm finally on the west coast and am able to go to an E3 and they stop doing the big flashy awesome one. And I'm not even in high enough on the corporate ladder for them to justify sending me.

oh well, Good luck GP running all over Santa Monica.