Is E3 dying? - Future of Hype Building

With the rising number of private showcase events in recent years (X018, PSX, Nintendo Direct), Sony's big withdrawal from E3, and the shifting industry landscape (potentially killing off traditional console cycles), are we seeing a rapid shift in the way the Big 3 build hype?

Is E3 on a slow decline, or will it quickly lose its relevance in the coming years, or do you believe it's too integral to gaming culture to truly die off? Do you still feel as excited for E3 or has the segmentation of announcements across numerous events hampered your expectations?

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My input: I personally believe E3 is still very relevant today, but the event could very rapidly lose its steam if they don't innovate soon. There is no shortage of communication between companies and customers through social media and leak culture, E3 simply isn't necessary anymore. For those that tout that it's primarily an investor targeted event (which it is), the same logic applies; with how readily information is available and how quickly news spreads, investors too may not put much weight into E3. One thing's for sure: Microsoft has the stage this year and they definitely should take the advantage they've been given.

Its better for company to focus on its own events rather than potentially gets overshadowed at E3.

@XVision84: Its important for gamers, as you can see all the new games in one place at the one time, and not have to watch a MS event, then wait a month to watch a Nintendo event, then wait 2 months for a Sony event or vise versa.

The average age of gamers these days is getting older with only 28% of gamers surveyed were under 18 and therefor most gamers have jobs and don't have the time to watch multiple events every year.

E3 is dead is sony isn't their whats the point

No its not. but TGA will surpassed it in future i believe.

@XVision84:

There used to ONLY be E3.

It used to be the only way to find out about the latest and greatest upcoming games for any video game provider during the year.

That isn't the case anymore.

Honestly, I don't see a problem with each of the big 3 hosting their own individual big game show each year. Like, we get more quality and less fluff that way and it's specialized for each company...I mean these companies are dropping millions of dollars to put on these shows anyway so they might as well personalize it if they have the ability.

That's why Nintendo smartened up a long time ago and I think Sony see's how they're spreading themselves thin by doing more than everyone else but getting little credit for it by having to split their announcements and reveals.

TL;DR

E3 used to be the only way to learn about all the biggest projects from the big 3. That's not true anymore and each of these companies have the ability to host their own events and because of the digital age, the media can easily follow and report on those games and it would be even more specialized than E3.

Even though E3 might not be as relevant or as important as it used to be. I still enjoy the E3 week and would miss it.

E3 isn't "dead" but it's not a necessity like it used to be before the digital age. Literally no one has a problem with pulling up and watching Nintendo direct, XO18, or PlayStation EX.

The only reason why E3 is still important is because of "tradition" and Sony and MS haven't put as much effort in their own shows as they have E3 but that may change.

That said, Sony will host an E3 2020 to beat their chest about PS5 games and make lems cry. 2019 Sony skipping E3 to do a specialized megaton even of their own in Dec to not reveal their hand too early.

I would say it’s certainly not gathering momentum or getting bigger.

The industry has to work harder than most to put on a show. These technically expertised companies tend to have real trouble with public presentation.

In the main, they have no charisma or eloquence and just end up fodder for so many cringe compilations.

That, or you get someone like Andrew Wilson, very clearly a fraud, and gamers can’t trust or identify with someone like that.

There’s very little middle ground, maybe people like SkillUp or Danny O Dwyer, but they don’t represent companies.

CD Projekt Red big bossman is probably one of the best at talking to audiences.

The only problem I see with the large companies leaving E3 is that E3 was THE opportunity for smaller mid-tier devs and publishers to showcase things to reviewers and talk to them since everyone would be there. Like, it's not cheap to get that kind of attention outside of E3 and I wonder if that's going to be a problem for the not so large companies.

Maybe E3 can still survive around them, though. I don't think E3 is quite dead yet. I'm not so sure that Sony is going to stay away. I also feel that the audience likes to have a big gaming celebration once a year. So I wonder if another convention is simply going to become the new E3 but without the 3. With huge amounts of reveals from companies that are not Nintendo/Sony/MS. Gamescom is enormous and I could see them reach out.

Short answer... No.

Long answer.... Noperzzz. :P

Sony's E3 show was just way too expensive, they should've kept it simple.

If there would be no more E3, I would definitely miss it a lot.

I mean, all of them are already doing their own conferences throughout the year. And they must get sick of speaking to all those journalists.

XD

I'll miss it. In fact, Sony at E3 is going to be sorely missed - it's always been a major reason to watch

E3 is still big, though it isn't the end-all be-all show it used to be.

I like E3 for the spectacle and E3 in the 90's was very important before the rise of social media and reading video game magazines on E3 was also something special. But most of the news makes it's way out days before the companies go on stage and present. I think Cliff Bleszinski made a good point awhile back, the biggest surprise a company could make at E3 is to show an amazing trailer with gameplay and then announce that it's available that day, as Cliff said "Steve Jobs style" and Jobs proved that, with great marketing can lead to a company with great heights if done right. We live in a different time and look for something else now, we want things presented to us in a different manner. In a world where people can obtain everything and anything instantly or with free overnight shipping... what's the point in waiting for something like E3?

Once the early to mid 2000's rolled around and broadband started becoming more prevalent, all of those great in-magazine reveals made it online months before showing up in print. And, fast forward to now, when social media is at an all-time high, as soon as something in known, it instantly hits online. Hell, there have been years where companies have done such an astronomically poor job of keeping details from leaking out before the show such that most everyone knew what they were going to be covering at E3 anyway. In this kind of world with modern YouTube, Twitter, and Twitch streaming, outside of the people that actually need to cover the material and report it (which I suppose can both be more hectic and more convenient than having to jet around the country for scheduled demo days for different developers) in the first place, most of the non-business people (and even them too) should be able to get by just fine with a video feed of an announcement followed immediately by a video stream of current build gameplay. (So, basically what Nintendo's doing and now Sony)

While I’d to think that E3 is still relevant it probably is on decline. I still get very hyped for each E3 and would definitely miss it if and/or when it ever goes.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Nintendo needs to pull out of E3 completely, as they have shown they don't need these events. They've done just fine without Leipzig and Tokyo.

E3 provides vital cringe to the world.

Same. Nintendo is kind of not all there anymore either. E3 died.

Last year... LOLOLOL look how small MS floor space at E3 is, MS getting out of the console biz... Turned out the floor space chart posted was totally bogus.

This year, recently announced, Sony not attending E3.... so now... Ya know it doesn't matter, E3 is dying and not relevant.

The false narrative and moving of goalposts in VG news and posting is sadly akin to the Fake News situation concerning politics these dayzzzzz. :P

Its been on the decline, it really started to go downhill when they stopped letting the general public buy tickets for the event, so its a big Expo of just people working in the industry, alot of game journalists, which make money off criticizing every little thing about every game shown, think of the PR blunders as well, Microsoft E3 going into this gen was atrocious and kind of set them in stone to fail, many of these issues have been fixed but the exposure was a bigger negative than positive. Look at C&C mobile and Diablo Immortal, Both took big PR hits.

I dont think Sony has much of anything new too show, which is why they pulled out, smart move, if all you got is another death stranding trailer of someone walking around its probably just better too not show, or do show up and every game journalist will point out that your E3 presentation was shit. GameSpot does it here, they grade Sony Microsoft and Nintendo and compare them too each other. Its bad publicity if you have nothing new to show.

I was actually ruminating this very same turn of events.

And I'll say, not "dying" by any means, but it has lost much of its prestige. I don't fault the big console manufacturers for wanting to have their own spotlight, but at the same time having one centralized function where the entire industry came together is what made E3 a grand event. If anything, each brand knowing they would be weighed against their competitor made them so intensely focused on bringing their A-game to their presentations, delivering the big moments to us, the gamers. It was even fun for us to see how they wanted to upstage one another.

OK, of course I realize their endeavors haven't always been successful, each of the Big 3 have at one point (or more) faltered. But for the most part with their efforts mainly channeled into E3 as the keynote of the year, their biggest shows have always been at E3. Can anyone honestly say the independent shows by Sony, MS, and Nintendo have ever been as ground breaking or as energized as their best E3 presentations? Or even the decent E3 showcases? Are they really working just as hard when they're not feeling the presence of competition?

But like I was saying about E3 being the annual event where the entire industry gathered, it grew in scope in the latter years as more and more publishers capitalized on this platform; EA, Ubisoft, and Bethesda taking the opportunity to make their big announcements. And again just as with the console stages, these could be hit and miss. But that's besides the point; it's really about the potential for greater community outreach when the game developers have this centralized platform, and similarly have to put in the effort not to be overshadowed.

Back before E3 went all digital and I would watch the event on TV, in my case mainly from TechTV/G3, because I couldn't be there, they made me feel like I was there by not only providing the presentation feeds, as well as the in-depth developer interviews (another spotlight of E3) there were the in between moments of the LIVE show floor coverage, taking a tour of the grounds, all the hardware and developer booths... it was rewarding to see firsthand the carnival of electric lights across the convention hall, the lineups for live game demo stations, the elaborate game attractions of setting recreations (I don't even mind admitting I miss the old spotlights on booth babes), the game maker celebrities meet n' greets... an atmosphere energized with excitement and pride. A Disneyland of the digital medium.

So having all the hardware and software giants along with the up-and-comers congregate, even in competition still part of a collective purpose ; that THIS was the time of the year on the calendar that marked a new turning point for the industry, where the groundwork was set for the holiday season and the year to come.... that unified motive which made E3 a celebration of video games, why the gaming community anticipated it every year and making it a collective event for us, matching the collective drive of the business. What I've often described as the "Gaming Superbowl".

E3 meant a lot to me, something I set time for, so it saddens me to see it become fractured as it has, and subsequently having lost its purpose and from that its prestige. I don't mind there being multiple industry events (TGS, PAX, GDC, etc...) that gives us something throughout the year. But E3 having lost it's original purpose, diminished to become just another minor event drowned in the crowd, we no longer have that one singular gaming event that stands out to be the call to action for the industry and gamers alike... which is what we really need E3 for.

Wow.... I didn't realize my rumination would grow to this scale when I started typing it, so here's the TLDR;

* Even among multiple industry shows (TGS, GDC, PAX, etc...) E3 still had prestige.
* The whole industry came together, the big hardware makers, publishers, developers, along with up-and-comers
* the industry coming together brought the gaming community together, even in debate still a large gathering of what we have in common.
* It was both competitive and collective to move the gaming medium forward.
* In that competitive spirit, the companies put way more effort so as not to be upstaged, an effort we don't see in their independent shows.
* E3 used to be the calendar event of the year that marked the turning point for the industry, setting the ground work for holiday season and year to come.
* but since then lost its purpose as a unified Call to Action for the industry and gamers alike

E3 is bigger than it has ever been! They are breaking attendance numbers and number of people watching at homes and on Twitch, Mixer, YouTube are through the roof!

They are actually outgrowing the current location in LA. The were thankful MS decided to use Microsoft Theatre, and Even Sony had to set up Tents in the parking lot for their failure of a show last year.

This show is about about fans but not in the sense they all get to go and play. It's more so about the fans in the way that every major news and press outlets are there. Hence giving us more information from all the interviews. Are all the major Gaming news people there? yes. But you also have ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, Fox, NY Times, Etc. These guys are not trapesing to every god damn show in the land! E3 is meant to be a for the Press and people that work in the industry to get news and make deals. From the people I know that have been, they fans coming in is what's ruining it.

Some Saying the show is expensive. How much money is it worth to get to thousands of news outlets all over the world in 1 week? The show is a hell of a lot cheaper.

EA is not there but they are close and the same week, and in my opinion part of the show. Nintendo may not do live conferences but they have a huge presence on the floor. Last year they were on 2 floors and both were packed!

I understand there is many damage controlling for Sony, but they are not bigger than E3. It hurts E3 some, but gaming fans more. If I was lucky enough to get a ticket and go i would be disappointed. They have tons of 3rd party deals that they had no problem showing in the past, and could easily show a CGI or graphic for Uncharted 5 or Horizon 2 and fanboys here will still claim they stole the show like always. But now Sony isn't going so E3 don't matter. The damage control and narrative spins you guys pull is astounding!

Meh! Sony just couldn't compete with the PC show and ran away. :p

It's true. We can only have so many Sonic Anniversaries.....

@GarGx1: these days every show is basically a pc show, so it would be hard to compete with everything lol

The funny thing is, PC Game Show showed alot of games even gameplay then Sony.

I personally don't buy into the time argument since it's only a commitment of 6 hours in an entire year, if one were to sit through every private event from the Big 3. Of course, there's also the option of just watching some of it and getting updated on the rest later.

TGA's been growing very rapidly, not sure if it'll surpass E3 though. You can't possibly fit in gaming presentations from the Big 3 and also run an entire awards show without having the event take an egregiously long amount of time.

Agreed, I'm a big fan of the recent changes to company showcases. They used to fluff it up with long speeches and pointless entertainment (who watches E3 to watch a live dance performance?). The last few conferences have been stellar because they've been straight to the point.

I think they've improved tremendously in this regard. Yes, E3 has a long list of cringe moments, but lately that hasn't been the case. The same goes for the TGA, every year it seems to get less and less cringeworthy.

Lol, this reminds me of the Angry Joe - Geoff Keighley debacle. That was great.

Their show was the highlight of the show for most gamers I think.

Agreed, they did exactly that with CyberPunk 2077 (a mysterious Twitch stream countdown leading into gameplay with no presentation whatsoever) and it was all over the gaming news. Although Sony's presentations were excellent, probably the biggest mistake they made was showing everything too early. Delaying games multiple times and showing trailers over multiple E3's isn't a practice I'd like to become commonstance.

@AdobeArtist: I agree that the grandiosity of E3 would sorely be missed. The culture built up around it is still fantastic, although pieces of that would be preserved in segmentation of company showcases. There were some consistently bad E3 showcases, though. Presenters had many cringeworthy moments and bizarre presentation choices at E3 over its storied history. Recently the presentations have become more streamlined which has helped alleviate that.

To your point regarding private showcases, I'd argue that PSX has been on the scale of E3 before. Sony dropped a lot of huge announcements at PSX and it almost felt like their second E3 conference. This would only become moreso if E3 announcements were further diverted to other events. Some also greatly prefer the more personal nature of PSX over E3. In that sense, there could potentially be greater community outreach with E3 gone. We might have more personal events geared towards platform-specific audiences and potentially greater utilization of social media. To be fair, many of the E3 conferences (such as Ubisoft's or EA's) were rather dull most of the time. The heavy hitters are centered around the Big 3 (which, lately, feels more like the Big 2 at E3 since Nintendo does their own thing).

I also used to watch E3 through TechTV before Twitch/YouTube E3 streaming became a big deal. I agree it brought all that to the table, however I don't think that any of those are exclusive to E3. The same experience can be gained from Gamescom or PGW. This may be on a smaller scale (although I'd say Gamescom is arguably on par to E3 in this respect), but again if E3 dies then other forms of outreach will pick up the slack.

Fortunately, we've got The Game Awards, which they've been trying to make into the Oscars of the video game industry. I would certainly leave that as a possibility, if they can reasonably time the event so that it's not overly long.

On a side note, I see your bold game is still going strong, Adobe :P.

Well they did open E3 to the public which is a big reason why attendance climbed so high. Colin recently addressed this in his podcast and called E3 a shell of itself. The fact that YouTube changes up their logo every time E3 comes around and that it's at the top of Twitch is pretty great though!

Personally I'm a big fan of the culture surrounding E3 so I don't want it to go away, but a part of me believes it's inevitable.

I actually applaud Sony for not using CGI, they've been showing gameplay for all their big titles consistently. This is one of my gripes with Ubisoft and (sometimes) EA. I don't care how good your CGI trailers look if the game I'll be playing pales in comparison. Watching assassin's (for example) perform amazing stunts and combat means nothing if none of those things can be performed in-game.

I will always enjoy e3 I will never forget the ps1 reveal £299.

It's sad, but true. E3 probably isn't going to disappear any time soon, but it is kinda losing a bit of following. Companies will still do their own shows, but I have enjoyed E3 and watching all the cool new games being announced. I'll still watch it for however much longer it goes on. On the bright side, maybe EA will leave E3 soon and we can stop having each year start with the worst conference.

E3 is centrally located where all the media is, its the best place to show off your shit. I think biggest thing is fact they opened it to the public, and Sony doesn't like that, cause they are snobs.

Since Xbox owns E3, I think it makes sense for Sony to find somewhere else to do their weird little skits and musical numbers, like Tokyo Game Show or Paris Games Week, and since the media will show up at drop of the hat to suck on Sony's ass, surely they don't need E3, but can do their own September events like they did to try and fail to explain Pro's 4K checkerboarding gaming.

Devolver Digital will save E3.

Well some of us work 50hrs+ a week and, some of us want it all at one show and be done with it for a year. For instance I watched MS E3 this year and thought it was good, then watched the XO18 event and thought it was a waste of 2hrs, as these companies put in fillers when using they're own shows, so boring.

You must of watched a different E3 from everyone else this year.

So many of you are missing the main point of E3. It's a Press/Media event. Yes you can get all the info from IGN, Gamespot etc. But casuals don't do that! They watch ABC, NBC, BBC etc who go and cover this event. They are not covering PAX and Gamer Fan Fests! \

Casuals are the reason console generations are won and lost, They have no idea what PSX is, but most have heard of E3. It's like asking anyone if they ever heard of ComicCon.

Xbox won this E3 yeah. But their show was all multiplats, so it was a good show for cows

I hope E3 dies out. I am tired of reading about who "won" the event.

You cows still pushing that stupid narrative, oh and still pushing that other old narrative that every cow has a PC more powerful than the X lol.

But it's the truth, are u denying most of what they showed weren't multiplats? Most of the games shown can be played on PS4 and the pathetic small list of exclusives xbone has are on PC too.

Shhh don't destroy his delusion with facts, it's all lems have left.