E3 06: ESA pres opens E3 2006

LOS ANGELES--Doug Lowenstein, president of the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), the organization that owns and produces the Electronic Entertainment Expo, marked the opening of the 2006 E3 with a message about how the gaming industry is stimulating the US economy in a series of different ways.

The results of a study conducted by two of the country's leading economists (Dr. Robert Crandall and Prof. J Gregory Sidak) put the sales and export value of video games across all platforms at $10.3 billion in 2004, Lowenstein said. However, that's not the whole picture as there's another $7.7 billion of economic impact on top of this--and that's not taking into account the industry investment in research and human resources.

It's an interesting slant on the state of play in the video games industry today, especially when most headlines point only to the forthcoming launches of the next-generation consoles from Sony and Nintendo, as well as the continued development of the Xbox 360.

But Lowenstein argues that the most important date window isn't between now and the end of the year; it's between now and the end of 2010. Despite a slight drop in video game sales year-on-year between 2004 and 2005, Lowenstein said that "whatever occurs in 2006, and I have heard all the doom and gloom, the following few years I believe will be years of solid growth and stunning creative advances."

He went on to make the point that by 2010 there will be 75 million Americans between the ages of 10 and 30--making it the dominant generation in the country--and every one of those people will have grown up with video games as a central part of their DNA.

"Video games are the rock and roll of their generation, and Halo 3 and the Sims and Zelda are the Grateful Deads and the Rolling Stones." Lowenstein said.

Lowenstein finished his opening presentation by revealing his hope that this year's E3 would herald the transition not just from one console generation to the next, but the transition from "video games as pure entertainment to video games as a recognized and central feature in the economy and business and education of America and of the world."

Although Activision, Square Enix, Sony, Nintendo, Microsoft, and Konami had all conducted press conferences on previous days, the world's biggest video game trade show didn't officially open until today. Some 60,000 visitors are expected to walk the cavernous exhibition halls of the Los Angeles Convention Center throughout the three days of the show, with the world's most anticipated games and consoles on display.