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Gen Con To Take the Place of E3?
Venues like PAX, Tokyo Game Show, and GDC are taking stock in the wake of E3's 'demise', and coming to terms with what this will mean next year. Gamasutra reports that another trade show is stepping up the the plate: Gen Con. From the article: "In order to better accommodate the video game business into its existing shows, Gen Con organizers plan to expand its venue space at the Indianapolis show in 2007. An additional 43,000 square feet will be added to the exhibit hall with additional space expanding into area hotels as well to accommodate the thousands of games taking place over the four-day event. In addition, Gen Con So Cal, the companies' show traditionally held in Anaheim, will be moved to the Los Angeles Convention Center, the former site of the annual E3 trade show, for an unspecified 2007 date, and will attempt to attract further video game companies to exhibit alongside the traditional paper-gaming and CCG Gen Con stalwarts. 'When the news came out about the drastic changes at E3, we began to hear from some industry players about Gen Con increasing its capabilities to better accommodate the industry,' said Peter Adkison, CEO of Gen Con, LLC." This is truly surreal.
I just don't think GenCon has the infrastructure... But it would be cool to see.
Gas prices being what they are, and budgets being crunched, I think you will see a lot of shows combining in the near future.
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order- Ed Howdershelt Via Tass
But it also means minus the hype..the buzz..the sitting around watching video game news for a week. For as much of a pain in the ass the fanboys might be if it werent for them no one would give a flip about E3. The only thing that scaling back E3 is going to accomplish in the long run is ensure that small developers have a harder time getting their games published and bigger companies can freely continue to shovel out crap. E3 has always been about hype and press, yes deals occasionally got made but even most of those were the results of the buzz.
Please, god, NOOOO!!!!!!!
It could only result in a mass wave of strokes and heart attacks as table top gamers encounter women who aren't Furries, WW groupies, game geeks or immediate family members. They won't know how to cope.
Sara
Designer, Gamer, Macgrrl in an XP World
Why would anyone want to become the next E3? The ESA said it themselves, the members themselves decided unanimously that E3 was too big and cost too much. Those are the same people who are going to look at Gen Con and say : "You know guys, there's a reason why E3 is dead. We won't take part in your E3-wanna be project. It just costs too much."