E3 To Allow Limited Public Attendance For First Time

[Conrad Zimmerman]

E3 To Allow Limited Public Attendance For First Time

North America's biggest videogame industry trade show to invite "prosumer" public.

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[Silentpony_v1legacy]

Gasp!
The Powers that Be have finally opened the doors to us dirty, smelly no-good peasant consumers?! Oh EA be praised!
Here's hoping we don't get our smelly dirty filthy germs all over the superior upper-class elite, smart, sexy and totally professional journalist and AAA PR spin-doctors.

 

[Conrad Zimmerman]

Gasp!
The Powers that Be have finally opened the doors to us dirty, smelly no-good peasant consumers?! Oh EA be praised!
Here's hoping we don't get our smelly dirty filthy germs all over the superior upper-class elite, smart, sexy and totally professional journalist and AAA PR spin-doctors.

Be snide if you like, but when you have a job to do and you gave a damn about your job, overpopulation in a show hall is a really horrible thing. E3 has become a lot better than it was pre-2007, and a big reason for that is because the cut the attendance down and eliminated a lot of mid-level retail employees who were just going there to hang out.

Now, there are certainly many opportunities for the press to experience games year-round and I think the importance of E3 as an event where business deals and the chance to debut new products has diminished, so it makes sense to open it up a bit more.

All that said, as a working member of the press, I would much prefer they extend the event one day and open that to the public completely than add more people to the existing days. I'd love for everyone to have the chance to check out E3, but it is hard enough covering that show without increasing its human density further.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

I've always wondered why E3 didn't have at least one day where the general public could attend. Watching the coverage on X-Play was always a highlight of the summer for me when I was young, but I'd always wanted to actually go to it. Closing it to the very people who you are trying to sell/impress with the final product always seemed a bit strange. I wonder if this will go over well. Honestly, I'd be a bit nervous going now. The landscape has become a lost more hostile on all sides it seems.

 

[praetor_alpha]

Yay! Now I can attend awkward keynotes filled with non-representative CGI trailers in person!

 

[Hairless Mammoth]

So they are giving away tickets for exhibitors to A) Give to their close friends or family B) use as incentives for something like preorders/crowdfunding bonuses, or C) bring in more people to observe the competition and the crowds' reactions to different things. Either way, it's bringing in more people to clog up the convention center's floor, the demo lines, and, most importantly, the restrooms.

They might as well be open for one more day, with that one being open to the public, and maybe charge an entrance fee below/at/above the cost of renting the center for one more day. That would give journalists some more coverage time, while not bogging them down with extra people during their original 3 days. Perhaps this is a test to see what happens when a bunch of random people, who aren't out to advertise new games or write up previews on them, are released on the show floor. Maybe their viral marketing plan will pay off, and they will open an extra day next year.

I'd have no interest in going, no matter how they open their doors to me. Too many people to crawl through. It's not like E3 is a secret lodge meeting where your buddy has to teach you a secret handshake for weeks and you have to wear a beaver skin hat to find out whats goes on inside. It's well covered by the press, and thanks to teh modern internets is practically covered live.

 

[Atmos Duality]

Oh goody; so now a limited part of the general public can witness a show that's primarily just marketing bullshit, instead of having to go through the two faced gaming press.

What a fucking privilege.

 

[Ishal]

Oh goody; so now a limited part of the general public can witness a show that's primarily just marketing bullshit, instead of having to go through the two faced gaming press.

What a fucking privilege.

You know, if I actually attended this, I might just take a heavy step back from the medium and reconsider ever returning.

That's the side of most industries that public isn't meant to see. E3 isn't PAX, or any of the other gamer centered gatherings. It's a marketing mecca where the publishers and marketing teams meet to assuage share holders and better talk about how they rake in those juicy pre-order bonuses checks.

Not only that, but the press is also there. I mean, only way it could worse is if you invited the culture critics.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Yay! Now I can attend awkward keynotes filled with non-representative CGI trailers in person!

That is the exact description of E3. You are looking at a salesmen conference, so you either come to sell some property or you came to buy property, possibly some other trade deals on the side. But they haven't got shit for a general consumers, might as well read marketing pamphlets because that is the experience that awaits you.

 

[CrystalShadow]

Sounds nice...

Though personally I'd rather attend GDC...
Much more interesting...

Then again, I am technically a game developer if you look at the skills I sort of have.
Never done anything useful with them, but it wouldn't be completely crazy for me to go to an event designed for game developers.

E3? Eh. Whatever. >_>

 

[thewatergamer]

Is it true? Praise our corporate overlords! I swear allegiance to Ubisoft!

Seriously though? Who actually takes anything at E3 seriously anymore?

 

[Atmos Duality]

That's the side of most industries that public isn't meant to see. E3 isn't PAX, or any of the other gamer centered gatherings. It's a marketing mecca where the publishers and marketing teams meet to assuage share holders and better talk about how they rake in those juicy pre-order bonuses checks.

Not only that, but the press is also there. I mean, only way it could worse is if you invited the culture critics.

See, there's one thing I don't quite get here with E3: If it's just a trade show for producers and investors, then why stream to the general public at all? Why hold press spots and marketing events aimed squarely at consumers?

Like Sony's jab at Microsoft over the PS4's "game sharing". It was obviously aimed at consumers, since the people that would appeal to most at the time were the incensed gamers. (and conversely, the people it would appeal to the least were the major publishers since they've been trying to force Always Online DRM into gaming for years now)

I guess what I'm saying is that I don't know why some folks insist it's a show solely for producers and investors. I know we don't see half the crap that goes on behind the curtain, as it were, but the big press events are pretty obviously aimed at drumming up hype in the rank and file every bit as much (if not more) than the investor elite.

 

[Conrad Zimmerman]

Since opening its doors for the first time twenty years ago, the Electronic Entertainment Expo has been closed to the public

wat
Did I suddenly hallucinate all the years E3 was open for public, before it got all "our little journo whores only"?

I guess so. For a time, it was easier for people who were more tangentially related to the industry to attend. You could qualify for a pass if you worked in a retailer that sold video games, and that was extended all the way down the chain to the lowliest employee, in some cases, from little independent retailers to big bog stores like Target and Wal-Mart. That's how I attended the show in 2005, before pursuing a career in writing, by applying for a pass under the name of my then-employer, Circuit City.

When they scaled back the show and moved it to Santa Monica in 2007, that ended, and while the show has returned to a more sizable audience, they are still much more restrictive on who qualifies for a pass than in years past.

I guess what I'm saying is that I don't know why some folks insist it's a show solely for producers and investors. I know we don't see half the crap that goes on behind the curtain, as it were, but the big press events are pretty obviously aimed at drumming up hype in the rank and file every bit as much (if not more) than the investor elite.

Producers, investors, retailers, and press are the target audience. But a lot of the larger publishers have their own PR/Press arm that takes advantage of the show to create content for themselves (think PlayStation Blog/Major Nelson). The internet and streaming video have also really changed the game in terms of how much dependence ESA members have on the press, and it's now possible for them to speak directly to consumers through their briefings, so they take advantage of that.

Although, the jabs at competitors have always been a part of press briefings. That's not an innovation meant for the expanding stream audiences. They're just like that, though I bet they love that so many more people get to see them be witty.

But the show itself, the actual physical event, probably doesn't really need to be open to Joe Gamer because they really can get pretty much everything they were likely to get out of it (other than a whole lot of conflicting noise and slow-moving herds of people) from home just by being on the internet.

 

[thepyrethatburns]

Translation: The proliferation of other gaming conferences that do allow various forms of public access as well as the ability to get gaming news 24/7 over the internet is becoming a concern for E3. In an attempt to remain relevant, E3 will now start to accept that they no longer have a stranglehold on information anymore and will start doing what other conferences have been doing for years.

 

[LordLundar]

Since opening its doors for the first time twenty years ago, the Electronic Entertainment Expo has been closed to the public

wat
Did I suddenly hallucinate all the years E3 was open for public, before it got all "our little journo whores only"? Is this some Orwellian shit going on?

Ehh, sort of. It always was off limits to the public officially but it was notoriously easy to get passes. For the longest time all you had to do was say you worked in the industry (retail sales staff even qualified) and cough up the fee and you got a pass. That doesn't even factor in press companies requesting more passes than they needed and scalping them. It wasn't until after they recombined the separate entities (remember it was split into two for a year) that they started to crack down on press only.

 

[Nurb]

E3 is such a joke now with talk of companies skipping it and dropping interest that they're "allowing" unwashed masses to attend

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

E3, the big 3 day long, live trailer. The hype event, made for money, by money. Obscene amounts of money. Stand back, oh pious folk, else you might get hit by a flying wad of capitalism in this tornado of marketing. Cue obligitory booth babes/dress up dolls dressed as tomb raider and other more relevent "sexy" game characters that I daren't watch for my eyes would severely hurt if they roll any further into my head. Perhaps if they were to add firework displays...
Cynicism aside, surely if these people have to meet certain requirements to get in, some of which I bet involve generating more hype via social media or donating to the cause etc, does it still class as the public? Hang on, that's still more cynicism. Sorry, all I got here is cynicism. I thought I had other stock today, evidently not.

 

[crimson5pheonix]

I wonder why they picked this summer of all summers to do this.