Updates on the new E3

So we all know the hoopla about Electronic Entertainment Expo. Well, here’s some updates regarding the future of the much beloved convention. David Adams of IGN reports that the revamped E3 will be held July 11-13, 2007 in Santa Monica, California, where a number of hotels and the Barker Hangar will host press conferences, smaller meetings, and game-play demos.

Okay, in case you’ve been an out-of-touch-gamer for the past few months, here’s a little background info on the E3 hoopla thing we mentioned. Last July the ESA (Entertainment Software Association) announced that E3 will be overhauled. Instead of the huge Vegas-like event that gamers have grown to love, the ESA says that the new E3 will now be a more intimate invitation-only event.

Here’s my humble opinion about that July decision: there goes a great gaming tradition. A whole lot of kids back then wanted to be 18 just so they could legally ogle the booth babes at the event. There was just something weird and magical about the glittery gaming Vegas ambiance of the old E3. For one thing, the old E3 had the power to make grown men look like overexcited toddlers running into a playground for the first time.

I wonder how this new E3, with its daily luncheon sessions with executives and analysts, and its evening parties, and its “Into the Pixel” art exhibits feel like? Here’s a quote from ESA president Douglas Lowenstein:

By combining suite-based meetings with the software showcase in a controlled and business-like environment, we believe we will successfully fulfill our primary objective of giving high-level media the best of all worlds — the chance to engage in highly personal, one-on-one dialogue with leading game company executives, as well as the chance to demo games on their own time and to check out offerings from both the best known and emerging game publishers and developers…

From the sound of it, it seems like it’s going to turn into something a bit more civil. Will it have the same “magic” we remember? I guess we’ll find out next year.

So we all know the hoopla about Electronic Entertainment Expo. Well, here’s some updates regarding the future of the much beloved convention. David Adams of IGN reports that the revamped E3 will be held July 11-13, 2007 in Santa Monica, California, where a number of hotels and the Barker Hangar will host press conferences, smaller meetings, and game-play demos.

Okay, in case you’ve been an out-of-touch-gamer for the past few months, here’s a little background info on the E3 hoopla thing we mentioned. Last July the ESA (Entertainment Software Association) announced that E3 will be overhauled. Instead of the huge Vegas-like event that gamers have grown to love, the ESA says that the new E3 will now be a more intimate invitation-only event.

Here’s my humble opinion about that July decision: there goes a great gaming tradition. A whole lot of kids back then wanted to be 18 just so they could legally ogle the booth babes at the event. There was just something weird and magical about the glittery gaming Vegas ambiance of the old E3. For one thing, the old E3 had the power to make grown men look like overexcited toddlers running into a playground for the first time.

I wonder how this new E3, with its daily luncheon sessions with executives and analysts, and its evening parties, and its “Into the Pixel” art exhibits feel like? Here’s a quote from ESA president Douglas Lowenstein:

By combining suite-based meetings with the software showcase in a controlled and business-like environment, we believe we will successfully fulfill our primary objective of giving high-level media the best of all worlds — the chance to engage in highly personal, one-on-one dialogue with leading game company executives, as well as the chance to demo games on their own time and to check out offerings from both the best known and emerging game publishers and developers…

From the sound of it, it seems like it’s going to turn into something a bit more civil. Will it have the same “magic” we remember? I guess we’ll find out next year.