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Moore on E3: Go big or go home

Add another industry player to the list of those disappointed by last week's E3 Media & Business Summit. Following the lead of Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello, EA Sports president Peter Moore voiced his displeasure with the show in a recent post on his blog.

"There was a palpable sense of frustration at the structure and logistics from all participants, from publishers like ourselves to the working press and financial analysts," Moore wrote. "Soulless and lacking an epicenter, the fragmented layout gave no indication whatsoever that we are the fastest growing entertainment medium in the world."

Moore stopped short of saying that he wanted a return to the old format of the show, which drew 60,000 attendees in 2006 and saw publishers spending millions on their booths. However, the current format isn't working and needs changing, he said.

The executive said that the publisher would work with the show-organizing Entertainment Software Association to improve the event, and suggested opening the show up to some rank-and-file gamers.

"With the right planning, involving our biggest fans in E3 would bring back some of the raw passion the event has lost," Moore said.

The ESA committed to holding an E3 2009, but it is unclear what changes to the format would be made. The trade group is just beginning the process of surveying this year's attendees and exhibitors; potential changes will be discussed once that feedback is compiled.

119 Comments

  • Yuck_Too

    Posted Jul 29, 2008 9:57 am PT

    The truly sad thing about all this is so many of you actually thing E3 was meant to be a flash and glam arena to brag about what a company can do.

    It was / is a venue for smaller developers, distributors and trade related people to meet and greet and help bring new products to market.

    Look at the recent titles that just got dropped by Activision; those developers are now looking for other publishers and industry related people work with.

    That is what E3 was meant to do...it was not meant to see how much money the big boys could blow and booth babes, flashing lights and hand outs.

  • Autolycus

    Posted Jul 29, 2008 7:11 am PT

    if people stop purchasing games because of lack of excitment (like myself) then guess what, no more video games get made. E3 tried to take the general public out of it because they thought they knew better, but as usual the customer is more important then the business, that will NEVER change. Without the customer THERE IS NO BUSINESS.

  • jak345

    Posted Jul 29, 2008 12:31 am PT

    man e3 08 sucked big time , its mainly cuz there isn't any big surprises but there was some surprises like FF last remnant and MAG and also FF 13 being also on the 360, but everything that was on e3 was already known about like gears of war 2 everyone knew that it was coming to the 360 and there wasn't many surprises for the 360 cuz m$ sucked in their presentation and the best one was sony in my opinion cuz they kept the surprise element in their presentation like they didn't say anytime before that god of war 3 is coming to the ps3 cuz they wanted it to be a surprise for everybody and e3 and also dc universe online wasn't announced i think until only at the sony presentation, so basically what im saying is if they want to improve e3 the 3rd party publishers and 1st party have to keep their mouth shut about the big games their planning but tell the press and gamespot about their other games but leave their big games till e3

  • PieCrusher

    Posted Jul 28, 2008 4:36 pm PT

    It's sad that they're not understanding what made E3 great. Now they are just becoming a waste of time and a lost cause. Its a shame, it used to be great.

  • BigDaveyDogz

    Posted Jul 28, 2008 1:21 pm PT

    E3 needs the gamers back and the show will be a success again. It has sucked for the past 2 years for exactly that reason.

  • Vividnightmare

    Posted Jul 28, 2008 10:26 am PT

    Yeah E3 sucked this year hard. I mean we only got 3 demos on the 360 from E3 this year and the news and such was slim to none. Usually E3 is like a cannon fodder of new info and new titles, all E3 was this year was expanding information on previously known titles. Gears 2 was announced before E3 and so was Halo Wars, really this year just was pointless. E3 is dead, time to look to the GDC in germany I think cause this is pointless to watch E3 now.

  • deadstarr

    Posted Jul 28, 2008 9:56 am PT

    Meh, E3 wasn't THAT bad. In my opinion the M$ press conference wasn't half bad.

    I would like to see it go back to what it used to be though, I don't understand the reasoning behind making the event smaller. ):

  • thadude85

    Posted Jul 28, 2008 9:07 am PT

    perhaps he should apply that same strategy to his own comany before taking shots at others.

  • Hvac0120

    Posted Jul 28, 2008 8:50 am PT

    Seems to me like everyone has the same feeling....Either go big or go away.

  • Rect_Pola

    Posted Jul 28, 2008 7:01 am PT

    So much was taken away in this and last years E3 that it's hard to say what would be good without going back to the original format. Lets see...

    Noise cap- fair enough
    Size cap- wouldn't mind if they let people by multiple or different size blocks, so smaller companies aren't hit hard.
    Limited attendance- I get they don't want a jumbled mess, but you want to fill auditoriums at least.
    Open to public- Again, I wouldn't mind it being limited if the show actually had some mystique about it again.
    Booth babes- cheap (and fairly pointless) promotional eye candy, but they do draw attention.

  • Icky27

    Posted Jul 28, 2008 6:39 am PT

    E3 => Hype => Excitement => Good

  • MonkishGamer

    Posted Jul 28, 2008 6:09 am PT

    I always watch G4's coverage of E3. They usually do skits and whatnot at each of the years when it was open to the public, and those were almost always funny. Plus they'd do all these sweeping camera shots of all the attendees. I personally enjoyed it a lot better. Who are you making the games for? Not the journalists that rip the games apart, but the gamers. LET MY GAMERS COME!

  • klugenbeel

    Posted Jul 28, 2008 6:05 am PT

    There were some big things to come out of E3, but not as big as it could have been since some publishers decided to pull the plug on some announcements and are choosing to wait for a "larger" vanue to make the announcement, which is looking like the Penny Arcade Expo.

  • Leo_Colt

    Posted Jul 28, 2008 1:56 am PT

    The thing about E3, is that it used to make US happy. That was the whole point of the show, for companies to showcase their wares as loud and proud as possible. Ever since the change, WE don't care about it anymore. Therefore, the companies see little reason to continue participating in the show in this format. True, they wanted it downsized. I don't think they wanted it downsized to this extreme though. The ESA went just a little too far, too quick;ly. Personally, I have to agree with him simply because this year's show was absolutely atrocious.

  • flackstone

    Posted Jul 27, 2008 11:42 pm PT

    i say go home but host own conventions

  • mlbslugger86

    Posted Jul 27, 2008 5:48 pm PT

    whether you agree with him or not....E3 this year felt way dull..its like they were more interested in multimedia features and numbers rather than showing games. all you have to see is the three press conferences, this is the first E3 in a while that i felt like i was falling asleep

  • T_Covenant

    Posted Jul 27, 2008 5:30 pm PT

    I think what people fail to realize is that E3 is an INDUSTRY event. IE, it's about stockholders, investors...the INDUSTRY. The *Fans* are not part of the Industry, they are the consumers of it.

    PAX is largely a CONSUMER show. there is a difference. The problem is that E3 tried to be both the DEFINITIVE industry show, IE, the Grammy's of the industry, while also attracting customers. PAX is essentially taking over the consumer part, that doens't mean E3 is less important, it just means its more political and subtle.

  • TX360

    Posted Jul 27, 2008 4:06 pm PT

    i liked e3 2008 why no one else?

  • aygol

    Posted Jul 27, 2008 1:03 pm PT

    Penny Arcade has such wonderful events (PAX) and they get better every year, but E3 gets worse, and this is why more companies and people prefer to go to PAX instead of E3, and PAX is from two guys, the ESA is a huge company.

  • twolegsbad

    Posted Jul 27, 2008 12:35 pm PT

    E3 changed in the first place because publishers weren't happy with it. Now year after the year they aren't happy again with the changes that resulted from their own vocal disatisfaction. And now geniuses like Moore get to throw out these one dimensional complaints without taking any of the burden of balancing the ideas and requests in an attempt to make everyone happy.

    E3 will never make everyone happy, it never did (which is why it changed), and if it dies because it couldn't reclaim its former glory it will be replaced by another show that doesn't make everyone happy.

  • ItsEvolution

    Posted Jul 27, 2008 10:32 am PT

    So...basically no matter what they do, no one is happy. Sigh.

  • Talgrath

    Posted Jul 27, 2008 10:14 am PT

    I honestly think that downsizing E3 was the right choice, they just did it to too large of an extent. If they had set some sort of E3 booth size/cost limit and otherwise left things the same I think they would have done much better. The problem is that they reduced booth size and broke E3 into a bunch of seperate, small events; that's not a real entertainment convention, that's a bunch of meetings. People can do a bunch of meetings anywhere; E3 should be to show off a bit. In essence, right direction, taken too far = bad results.

  • Vulpis

    Posted Jul 27, 2008 9:02 am PT

    I'm kind of amused by the people taking the tack of saying 'E3 was dull anyway--none of the big names had anything new.' Food for thought, folks--they didn't show anything new/interesting at E3...because they view E3 as not worth using as promotion anymore. They're saving the big presentations for *other* conventions. Case in point--see Bungie.

  • pcmacro

    Posted Jul 27, 2008 8:17 am PT

    E3 isn't what it use to be, but that was made clear when they announce it wasn't going to be a as big.

  • the_greenzero

    Posted Jul 27, 2008 7:12 am PT

    Come back stronger next year guys I remember one of my friends said that "Glory Favors the Bold", make use of that quote.

  • urbsdad6

    Posted Jul 27, 2008 4:43 am PT

    @ MasterofNinjArt, I agree. It should be about the people that will be purchasing the games and what quality and innovation can be brought to the them. Screwflashy marketing let's get our hands dirty and show us what ya really got. Don't be so timid and mundane. @ Timstuff , yes a more Comic Con atmosphere would definitely bring back the excitement and joy to the E3 presence.

  • MasterofNinjArt

    Posted Jul 27, 2008 3:59 am PT

    i think whats happening is video games are becoming more market and less entertainment its like they don't care so much about fans as they used to game makers need more pashon and less greedy agents god save the games E3 was ight thow they seem to only care about marketing in most areas thow

  • drangel_jam

    Posted Jul 27, 2008 2:10 am PT

    E3 is going down, if EA decides to follow Activision's footsteps.

  • Timstuff

    Posted Jul 26, 2008 11:57 pm PT

    E3 sucked this year. The only announcements were ports, and there was barely any interesting updates for the games that have already been announced. This new format is going to kill E3 if something doesn't change, I'm sure of it.

    Personally, I loved the comic-con style feel of the old E3. It was fun, and there was lots of stuff to see besides just the games. Which booth had the best booth babes? Who was giving away the coolest free stuff? Who's booth got you the most excited about the upcoming games? It was also chance for fans to meet the guys making their games, and play the games months or even years in advance. Now it's just a crappy 'unified' press confence, that is becoming increasingly LESS unified with so many people dropping out.

    E3 sucks now. Change it back, or it's going to be gone soon.

  • Yojimbo25

    Posted Jul 26, 2008 8:57 pm PT

    Uh yes it is there fault. They were the ones that cut the crap out of everything. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if E3 2009 is held in a Gym at some high school.

  • mjc0961

    Posted Jul 26, 2008 8:30 pm PT

    Is it really E3's fault that nobody had anything good to announce? Nintendo had its stupid Wii Motion Plus plugin, which is functionality that should have been in the Remote since day one. Microsoft announced that it will be offering a spin-off Mii service, which will likely be just as worthless as the original, and movie rentals with Netflix. Yawn. And did Sony even have anything major to say? Just that Home is still coming eventually, as far as I remember.

    You can't blame the ESA because Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony didn't bring anything good to the show.

  • poopyface12345

    Posted Jul 26, 2008 8:27 pm PT

    Is E3 even coming back next year? I think they said one more year and it might all done. That would be very sad.

    http://www.rewards1.com/index.php?referrer_id=253836

  • hunter8man

    Posted Jul 26, 2008 6:12 pm PT

    I find it quite ironic that some of the same people who were whining about it being too much of a hassle before the changes, now want it changed back to the way it was. Even so, if E3s of the future are similar to what we saw this past year, then gamers will not be that into it anymore. Make the changes. Let it be a celebration for gamers everywhere, while maintaining the business end of things. Also, move it around the country to other places than just L.A.

  • Hekynn

    Posted Jul 26, 2008 4:50 pm PT

    Eh it was ok for us PC gamers. But man they needed to make the area for E3 much bigger to have lots of stuff in it Don't care whats in their for next year but as long we PC gamers get some games in their along side with the consoles

  • Extimor

    Posted Jul 26, 2008 4:20 pm PT

    I agree with Yuck_Too.
    Keep E3 like is was!

  • Lexxzilla

    Posted Jul 26, 2008 4:16 pm PT

    Boothbabes make everything better.

  • Ranma_X_basic

    Posted Jul 26, 2008 3:52 pm PT

    Personally i'd like to See the E3 of old when it had all the Booth Babes. also (and this is just wishful thinking) i think it would be cool if it were open to the public since we gamers are the ones that buy and play the games all the companies spend their time creating. But i agree with Mr.Moore that it should go back to the old format.

  • xfactor19990

    Posted Jul 26, 2008 3:13 pm PT

    he is right the new e3 is too small, i want the big show like i was acustom too, and yes i love nintendo however this year was bad

  • lewis2112

    Posted Jul 26, 2008 2:59 pm PT

    E3 was too large before and now its too small and sterile no love lol, i think instead of fancy ridiculous booths, maybe just announcements and bagillions of consoles to play, and a simple open plan lay out. EA rule these events thats the problem they can afford to do anything.. e.g. i live in a city in the north of england called sunderland, and we just had a massive international air show and there was a massive EA games truck and ea games tents all around with loads of xbox's and new games, and these sorts of displays are all over england and some even are permanent displays in shopping malls, No other game company could afford to do this. I think the game devs need ot get more involved instead of the publishers

  • Sonicplys

    Posted Jul 26, 2008 2:57 pm PT

    I couldnt agree Moore. E3 needs to go back to the fun times or its over for them.

  • yesimbrandon posted Jul 26, 2008 12:52 pm PT (does not meet display criteria. login to show)

    yesimbrandon

    Posted Jul 26, 2008 12:52 pm PT (hide)

    E3 did need to downsize. The step that they made 2 years ago was the step they needed to take. The event became way out of hand with people just wanting to play all the new games coming out. If everyone were true game fans they could see the event and conferences for what they are and be excited and show the support that they should as fans. If opening the event up to 60k fans is what you need to be a gamer then the gaming industry in my opinion doesn't need you. What the industry needs is someone who can see a trailer such as the one shown for Fable 2 and be excited to get your hands on it the day it comes out. Peter Moore will continue to lead his crop of mediocre games that can never hope to be showcased on E3 because they bring nothing exciting to the table and he can continue to be bitter because his only innovation over the past year was to limp into one of the most brilliant games with Harmonix, how lucky. As a game fan I am personally now excited and cannot wait for the holidays and upcoming games I don't need a huge event where companies need to waste their money allowing me to demo their unpolished game, when they could be using it towards perfecting their product, I'd rather play the finished game on launch day.

  • gshell

    Posted Jul 26, 2008 9:36 am PT

    sigh.....these guys need to be honest. they just miss the t&a from the booth babes.....but seriously, i think e3 can take some cues from comic con. e3 should be a celebration of and for it's fans- the gamers. it should be like it was before 2007. my only problem with it being so big was that many people in the gaming press who report on the games couldn't cover everyhing because it was soo large.

    i think the gaming press should be put in a position to cover everything so those people who couldn't make it to e3 could have a thorough report on everything that was there. as far as the gaming fans let them have the floors and play the games. bottom line it should be open to the public.

  • deadeye75

    Posted Jul 26, 2008 8:26 am PT

    kyzar_x, E3 is more than the big three's press conferences. At least it used to be, but more and more I see people ignoring the rest of the show and only tuning in for the big three's conferences.

  • kyzar_x

    Posted Jul 26, 2008 8:21 am PT

    it was not to bad i mean xbox did realy good due the the fact that they had a lot of new stuff like netflex and they got final fantasy 13!!! The ps3 did an okay job, but wii did realy bad.I say dont blame E3 for it I think the ones to blame is nintendo for doing such a bad job at E3 but we all know that the nintendo fanboys will say otherwise.....

  • okassar

    Posted Jul 26, 2008 8:00 am PT

    Wow we got people saying E3 was a disaster....really?I know Microsoft did really good and Sony put on an exceptional show,only Nintendo bombed.That's 2 good,1 bad,does that=disaster?And who cares about the party and $#%@,most of us don't go there and all we see is the press conferences and stuff,which are all that matters.I guess it would be better if more publishers and developers made it a priority to attend E3,but honestly,as a 360 gamer,I was satisfied with everything I found out coming my way on the 360 and I'm sure PS3 gamers got some of what they wanted,Nintendo fans were let down...BIG TIME.I saw if you wanna fix E3 don't invite Nintendo...no,just joking,but they gotta make sure they're going to put up a good show for their fans,not take a big $#%@ on them.

  • thekey

    Posted Jul 26, 2008 7:51 am PT

    E3 wa trash! If E3 doesn't change it's ways it's going to be E0...

  • Dethmetl

    Posted Jul 26, 2008 6:52 am PT

    E3 was so boring this year it needs to go back to the way it was

  • Wolfos

    Posted Jul 26, 2008 6:42 am PT

    It shows the change in what gaming is and what it used to be when E3, a paragon of what linked GAMERS and GAME MAKERS, becomes detached and small to the point EA themselfs made there own verson called EA3. We need our E3 back. It used to be the one time of year i was excited about and people CAME to watch, CAME to get free swag and photos of booth babes, not the shadow it is now

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