E3 – The Week After.
Short version:
I liked the new E3. It featured enough serious press to make it worthwhile for us to attend, while remaining lean enough to not require a staff of hundreds to man a $5 million booth.
Longer version:
I actually blogged live from the event all week, over at TenTonHammer, so feel free to catch up with specifics there if you haven’t already.
The new E3 worked really well for us. We were able to give actual interviews and demonstrations, without having to scream over trillion-decibel techno music or wade through tens of thousands of people to get anywhere. We make games that can’t be summed up in a twenty second “whiz bang” trailer, so having the chance to sit down and talk for 15 minutes or more with each journalist was really helpful.
There are people who argue that without the over the top spectacle of previous years the show loses “value” for developers who choose to attend. Maybe those folks are right, but I have a hard time imagining a situation where ANY game that’s actually well-made and enjoyable wouldn’t be better suited by getting actual attention from the media rather than spending a million bucks developing a more effective swag cannon or having the army of bikini-clad models drop into their booth on zip-lines. It’s true that in the past more media overall attended, but to what end? They weren’t there looking at the games, they were covering the aforementioned spectacle. Getting the show on national TV does exactly nothing to help developers in attendance.
Now, don’t get me wrong – the new event is imperfect. It should be dropped down to 2 days total and the venue should be changed. I don’t think we need to send it back to hotels, but the convention center is simply too large for it at this point and holding it there only serves to make it feel less important than it is. I’ve heard rumblings that the show is now “dead” (but we heard that in 2006 and 2007 as well) or that it’s going to return to its Past Glory. I think either would be a shame, because it’s REALLY close to being a great event right now, even if it isn’t the sexiest thing in the gaming world anymore.
E3 was really a pleasure to attend this year. I think keeping it low key is great and I do agree that the Convention Center was too big for it.(and for my feet.. ouch) It was great to meet you, Paul and the crew! WAR looked great – big congrats on that.
You got to see the Who… Wow… explain that in excruciating detail.
We didn’t know what to expect, to be honest. The tickets weren’t labeled and we’d heard rumors ranging from the mundane (“You’ll play Rock Band II all night!”) to the horrible (“Coldplay will be there!” – though that rumor seemed unlikely for a number of legal reasons). When we walked over, there was a decent but by no means crazy crowd out front, including a handful of people trying to buy tickets from anyone who passed by.
We went inside and the lobby was fairly packed, which was confusing until we realized it was actually a poorly-formed line for the as-of-yet-unopened auditorium. Once they opened the main doors, we all filed in and sat down. There was roughly 30 minutes of waiting after that before the lights dimmed and The Who came out.
From there, it was 2 straight hours of screaming. You don’t realize just how many Who songs you know and love until you’re singing along non-stop for multiple hours. It ruled like crazy.
All credit to The Hickman, he convinced me to stop being a whiny baby and go out to the Rock Band party instead of going back to the hotel for a nap.
Listening to the Games for Windows (GFW) and 1up.com podcasts, you made a good impression on Jeff Green at E3.
I was surprised actually. I had been dreading their take on Warhammer online because many of them either dont like MMO’s or were cynical about them (other than WoW).
But Jeff had very good things to say! I thought that was an excellent sign that it’s appealing to a broad range of people and making great progress. He’s seen the game before and mentioned how tough it is to evaluate a MMO in a typical presentation. I think the new E3 format was a very good thing for your game.