Riccitiello: 'I hate E3 like this'

by Phil Larsen { Jul 18th 2008 at 11:00AM }

Another day, another E3 complaint. Yesterday, Alain Corre of Ubisoft commented on the size and location of this year's E3, wanting it bigger and better. Today, Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello joined the party, outright stating "I hate E3 like this." Hate is such an ugly word. Dislike?

Ubisoft's Laurent Detoc also jumped into the fray. Instead of taking a subtle approach, he laid it out straight and said "E3 this year is terrible. The world used to come to E3. Now it's like a pipe-fitters show in the basement." There is a debate on whether E3 should be a show for the world or an exclusive media-only event, and the difference between the two is massive. This year, only 5,000 media representatives attended, where in the past 60,000 eager gamers would cover the show floor.

With EA (and Ubisoft) having the resources to put on a bigger display than pretty much anyone in the world, it's no wonder they want as much room and as big an audience as physically possible. Again, what are your thoughts on this? Are you happy to be bombarded with ~~booth babes~~ explosive gaming news and excitement in May every year, or do you enjoy the lower-key, need-to-know approach of this year's event?

[Via Gamesindustry.biz]

Tags: e3, e3-2008, e308, ea, electronic-arts, john-riccitiello, ubisoft

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

benmully @ Jul 18th 2008 11:08AM

Surely there is a happy medium? Can't they do the big show as before, but give smaller developers a focus area of their own, or space around the larger developers?

Demotruk @ Jul 18th 2008 11:19AM

Two seperate conferences might be a happy medium. One can strictly avoid being a media frenzy, and can merely be about business, development and politics. The other can be all out media frenzy, and have it earlier in the year too.

Danny F. @ Jul 18th 2008 11:13AM

Give me my bigger E3 show.... thats all I want.

Increase the allowed guests by a few hundreds, allow bigger show room and more entertainment, and benmully said, a section for developers to showcase their work so they don't get overshadowed, possibly in the middle of the corporations so they dont get brushed aside at the end of the building or something.

This E3 passed so quickly and quietly that it was kinda sad.

Mr Khan @ Jul 18th 2008 11:58AM

Maybe a combination of the way they had it last year (where the big presentations and showcases were held in a series of hotels instead of the show center), and then have a semi-public show in the style of the 2006 and previous E3's at the actual convention center

Demotruk @ Jul 18th 2008 11:17AM

There seem to be far more people wanting to go back to the old E3 than are happy with it, let's not forget all the groups that refused to go this year but weren't as loud about it as the large publishers.

And from a stay at home reading the news perspective, the bigger louder E3 seemed better for us.

nastysquar3d @ Jul 18th 2008 11:32AM

I liked the bigger E3 too.

E3 has just been so "meh" these past years. I liked it when normal everyday gamers could go hands on with the new games coming out. It was almost like the big E3 was more exciting because not only were developers / publishers showing off new and exciting stuff they were also trying to convince their main consumers that they needed to buy whatever game / peripheral they had in the pipeline.

I'm also pretty sure if they had the big E3 still and Nintendo showed off what they did this year they would have people waiting in line to try WiiMotion Plus and that's it.

They'd realize that no one from the general gaming public gives a shit about WiiMusic and whatever other underwhelming crap they have planned.

Abscissa @ Jul 18th 2008 5:02PM

"I liked it when normal everyday gamers could go hands on with the new games coming out."

Strictly speaking, they couldn't. They were just finding ways to cheat and pretend to be real press, or get a job at GameStop, or something like that. It was never a true public event.

klepto88 @ Jul 18th 2008 11:46AM

E3 will cease to exist if it insists on continuing this way. Devs, journos, and gamers are all unhappy. Whose idea was this again?

TheOverlord#2 can has Animals Crossing? @ Jul 18th 2008 1:13PM

It wasn't anybody's idea.
E3 had always been a like this, it's just that they strapped down on security and made sure you were from Joystiq and not a GameStop employee.

klepto88 @ Jul 18th 2008 1:48PM

Akshully no - E3 used to be a magical spectacle. The ESA scaled it down last year, now all that remains is the pitiful little thing we saw this week.

Abscissa @ Jul 18th 2008 5:10PM

There's two primary groups of people who are unhappy with the new E3:

1. The kids with no-name websites or jobs at GameStop who are throwing tantrums over no longer being able to sneak into an event they were never supposed to be allowed into in the first place. (Note, I do think a true public event *in addition* to an industry-only E3 is a good thing.)

2. The giant corporations that are pissed that they can no longer try to drown out their competitors by out-spending them on worthless spectacle.

Michael @ Jul 18th 2008 11:51AM

I'd like a gigantic E3 carnival, where I could take a week's vacation and just bask in gaming and entertainment glory. It would be a huge event like the San Diego Comicon, except for gamers (there's a lot of overlap there), and would hopefully draw the same amount of celebrity and news attention.

Michael

CJLopez @ Jul 18th 2008 11:54AM

Open the entry. I so wanna go to a E3, bue with that that only press con enter, i might need to get into nintendo wii fanboy team to go next year, xDDDDDDDDD

Shaq-Fu @ Jul 18th 2008 12:03PM

How about E3 as a traveling circus? It goes and stops at major cities, sets up for about 3-4 days, then leaves. Sure, it would suck for Devs and Journalists to keep up, but its still better than what it is now

Sonic_13 @ Jul 18th 2008 12:13PM

That makes at least three companies now:
- EA
- Ubisoft
- Nintendo

To quote Miyamoto:
"For a very long time, E3 was an event where — and certainly Nintendo included — catered specifically to the core gamer. Now we look at more … an opportunity for us to introduce new concepts and new types of play that we intend to bring to the broader audience, particularly because of the media that gathers at E3 now."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25710005/

Hamster @ Jul 18th 2008 12:25PM

It was much better as it used to be. It used to be for gamers and hence Nintendo treated it as such. Now, for Nintendo it's just a desperate "please, please, please write an article about our latest casual gimmick in the mainstream media".

Josh @ Jul 18th 2008 12:32PM

Booth babes only serve to marginalize the game industry compared to other forms of entertainment.

I like the new E3 better, even if it means big news is now spread evenly throughout the year, instead of coming all at once (as with the old E3).

PIZman @ Jul 18th 2008 1:13PM

I work in two industries - the game industry (as a reviewer/writer), and in the print consumables industry. The Recharger convention (yes, the f'ing TONER convention) is more exciting than E3 was this year.

I understand the idea that smaller developers felt their games were being passed over for the big dog and pony shows from the big publishers...but that's a part of life. Conventions are supposed to make you excited for a product...and this year's E3 was not all that exciting. Otherwise, the devs and publishers could just mail out press kits and videos and let that be it.

manyquestions @ Jul 18th 2008 6:58PM

EXACTLY how I feel.

Dan K. @ Jul 18th 2008 3:44PM

Give me booth babes or give me death

Abscissa @ Jul 18th 2008 5:12PM

Then maybe you should be going to an adult industry trade show instead of a *videogame* trade show.

Nam @ Jul 18th 2008 5:08PM

I'm just saying if you got the girls at oneechanbara to debut the nintendo conference and to play wii music with shiggy then it would've been wonderful! and I would not have cared for the lack or lack there of games for core gamers.

Abscissa @ Jul 18th 2008 5:01PM

The old E3 was grossly immature and made the entire industry look bad. Looking at the old E3, it never came as a surprise to me that video games weren't getting the same respect as other mediums. It almost (*almost*) made me ashamed to be part of the industry. This new E3 is definitely the right move.

Nam @ Jul 18th 2008 5:10PM

Jason @ Jul 21st 2008 10:48PM

Asking our opinion is rather curious, because none of us went there! We all know the reason that they stopped the "old" E3, supposedly "everyone" thought it was too bombastic and unproductive. So they killed it, and everyone hates it now because no one is laying it all out there anymore. The spectacle is gone, and the show is underwhelming because of this.

KuroMiko @ Jul 20th 2008 11:20AM

Personally, I'm a PS3 owner only, but I sat down with a bunch of friends (some who have gotten their last 3 Nintendo consoles on Launch Day) to watch E3 this year. He and I will both agree, the disappointment on the Nintendo side comes entirely from the lackluster announcements rather than the format of E3.

Because there is so much more mainstream press, Nintendo aimed for the casual, and not the core market. I really hope Nintendo snaps out of this "casual is the way to go" mindset before that attitude leaks onto their Zelda/Mario/etc (core) developer teams, degrading the quality of those killer titles.

Ultimately the format of E3 will affect a company like Nintendo more than most because of their take on the casual market.