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Do Trade Shows Benefit Gamers?
Thanks to The Adrenaline Vault for its article discussing the actual significance of videogame trade shows, now that "e-mail, Internet press releases, cell phones, faxes, personal digital assistants and the like make communication and transmission of information virtually instantaneous among developers and vendors." The piece makes the suggestion, with regard to "trade shows like Comdex, CES and E3", that: "In earlier days, people were attracted to attend the national conventions because of all the novelty present. Now, new software and hardware products seem more evolutionary than revolutionary, with a lot of copycat items that differ from what is already out there just through cosmetic differentiation." Do shows like E3 matter as much as they used to?
probably helps to make them more irrelevant. Before, I had to scour high and low for scant screenshots or game info. Now all I need to do is head on over to one of the multitude of game sites and I can get more info/screenshots/previews than I could ever use.
Kind of makes going to the shows a lot less thrilling, I already know what will be there.
Of course, the booth babes still could make it worthwhile!
It depends on the show.... Some of the shows are all about the business and are targeted at the real customers for games: software retailers and game distributors. These shows are fun and entertaining and business gets done.
The shows targeted at players generally are not useful because only the product marketing people are there and no real business gets done.
-- $G
Nuff said.
Having actually been to E3 in 2001, I can say that they definately make a difference because they show what exists and what should be given top priority. Looking at the GBA with picture didn't do much for me, but actually seeing it in action impressed me. I was able to get a feel for each of the now 3 major consoles. Smaller manufacturers can get thier products displayed in a place where it can make an impact if it's worth making an impact.
If you think education is expensive, you should try ignorance -- Derek Bok, president of Harvard
The only reason E3 matters is because it is a set time for when all the video game companies save announcements for. If game companies made announcements as they come it wouldn't nearly be as suspenseful, hyped, etc.
What they do is they make a pile of secret new games and systems and all that jazz. Then when E3 comes around, bang! they show you all at once. You have lots of anticipation prior to the event and lots of talk generated during and after the event.
If the announcements of new games were spread out they wouldn't have as much oomph in their announcement. Of couse this has harms too. Smaller games get lost in the folds of E3. The big companies make such big announcements, and that makes otherwise huge ones from small companies look small.
I'm a CS guy. I'm going to buy the same games no matter what any of these companies do at trade shows or otherwise. So let the marketing guys do whatever they want.
The GeekNights podcast is going strong. Listen!
No.
In my industry (musical instruments), we have two pretty important trade shows each year: Frankfurt Musik Messe, and NAMM. Messe is in Germany, NAMM in SoCal (sometimes LA, sometimes OC).
... no NAMM though, I'm sick of NAMM.
Lately - over the last 4 years or so - I have noticed that these events are less and less important from the perspective of 'promotion/marketing to your market', and more and more important from the perspective of 'have a good time with the industry, party a little'.
What would be ideal is a little bit of Synth-DIY, some Messe, and some WMC all mixed together, though
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
E3 used to be all about 'the games for gamers' but between Sony's move to make video game consoles the center of entertainment systems and the 'maturity' of gamers (thats debateable), E3 turned into an endless mass of unsorted, mostly behind closed doors media event.
E3 was NEVER meant to be for the public, so I don't understand this question. It's meant for retailers. Do you think the head of EB Games will make million dollar purchase decisions based solely on "internet chatter" and press releases?! Hell no. It pays to see and "feel" the products in person before making such decisions. E3 is also pretty much the only avenue where advertising campaigns and advertising dollars are discussed. Publishers are pretty open with retailers about how much money they are planning to spend to market their titles, and how and where. But you won't see them discussing that so much with the general press.
E3 used to be for gamers? Where the hell did you get that from? In all of E3's history, they were NEVER open to the public. E3 has never been about wooing gamers. You just can't build a successful business or product just by catering to the few thousand who attend a trade show if they were just gamers. E3 is about wooing *retailers* so that they will stock your product in the coming christmas season (and beyond). E3 is about wooing the press so that they will talk about your product. These people affect a company's sales in huge multiples. Individual gamers on the other hand will maybe buy one copy, so they are hardly the target of this show.
It's the press that have really glorified the tradeshow beyond its original intentions. Back before E3, games were unveiled at CES (Consumer Electronics Show). You'd find some magazine coverage of this show, but it was much more low-key, so fewer people in the general public really paid attention.
Now, you get all this over-hyped "wowie zowie" type of coverage of the show, with trailers being released and television shows going in and showing us what's there, etc,etc. Blame the media for making E3 seem to be something bigger than what it is.
... but our show does. It's why we do it, for gamers.
http://www.quakecon.org/
Less Talk, More Beer.
E3 provides a single, physical place where people developers, publishers, distributors, retailers, and even press can meet face-to-face and have discussions. This kind of thing is invaluabe to the industry. The whole public-spectacle thing may be outdated (it is, in fact, my least favorite part of these events) but events like E3 are still 100% necessary for the growth of the industry.
That and a lot of developers spend all their time making their own games; they're too busy to really follow every game in development via the Internet. E3 is a great way for developers to see what other folks are doing and to kind of, you know, party a little. Though in my opinion, the Game Developers Conference is a better place for that than E3...
Don't bother. Your sentences filled with "reason" will not get through to slashdotters who's self-centered universes are firewalled against such disruptive facts.
It was for the Game Developers, Publishers, and Press.
E3 is not about getting gamers on board with the latest products. It never was, and for that point, is barely needed. What it is about is giving a chance for developers to get publishers to look at their games that they would never otherwise get. It is about getting the suits with money to figure out where to spend that money.
Also, it allows the press a chance to play two games likely to compete against one another and figure out which is more fun.
And it lets game programmers like me figure out what the hell everyone else is doing so we can try to do the same, only better.
END COMMUNICATION
It may be the only time most game developers ever get to see an actual girl in real life.
I've never been to E3 etc so I can only speak for ECTS, but in this case it is strictly a trade show. I'm sure some enthusiasts manage to get tickets, in fact one year I got myself a press pass by claiming to report for a games news web site(Mmm, free coffee and biscuits..:), but this is the exception not the rule. This could be affected by the kind of companies I worked for but in my view ECTS was more about narcisistic industry management showing off than doing business itself.
Oxford Dictionaries Online
The purpose of giant shows like these has waned in the high tech sector.
With the advent of the internet, their main purpose, free t-shirts can be had for the price of a witty slogan. Since the target audience is on the more technical side, those who care can get more off the website.
Companies can hold their own release parties if they so desire to launch products.
Witness Comdex being canceled this year.
As many have already said the main purpose of these shows has always been about the developers and publishers selling thier product to the retailers and press. However, it was always a major secondary factor that the consumers (read gamers) would get alot of exciting info from them too. In the past a CES show or E3 or whatever would show off exciting new gadgets and games, but now if you've watched for the last 10 years of E3, that secondary part is almost obsolete. There are hardly any suprises anymore. 99% of the games are already shown prior to the show, even if that's just a week in advance. The only real value in E3 is getting to play/use the stuff hands on. So now that the consumer aspect is worthless, these shows are going to get alot smaller and have less money thrown into them.
I went to E3 in 2001 and got to try out the Xbox and Gamecube before they were out, and that was amazing, but still I really didn't see or learn anything I didn't already know before I got there. I think these shows will go back to just focusing on the trade/bussiness aspects and not have as much flash for the press in the future. The E3 surprise factor is gone.
"A truly wise man realizes he knows nothing."
Where the GBA impressed me wasn't in Nintendo's booth. It was in booths like Capcom's which had some solid, well made games available for trial. There were some really nice items for show in the less flashy booths.
If you think education is expensive, you should try ignorance -- Derek Bok, president of Harvard
I can't think of any game/system that I've wanted that hasn't been in EB (unless they've sold out). Pretty much thought that the head of EB was lazy and said "get every console system and every game on every major label". The exception to this is computer games, but then E3 really isn't geared to computer games. I'd agree with you if EB actually stocked non-major games...