e3 2008
News
id Software Exits ESA, Too
6:18AM Leigh Alexander | id Software confirmed it has left the Entertainment Software Association, joining a growing list of recent departures that includes Activision, Vivendi and LucasArts. The publisher departures follow decisions made by the ESA board surrounding last year’s E3 move to Santa Monica that ultimately cost the association $US 5 million and necessitated raising its membership dues, as Kotaku reported earlier this week. Both id and the ESA confirmed the departure; while id Software declined to comment, ESA senior VP of communications and research Rich Taylor responded: “We can confirm that id Software has decided not to renew its membership in the ESA. We admire their creativity and innovation. We also respect their decision,” he said. “The ESA continues to lead the thriving video and computer game industry. We are dedicated to protecting intellectual property, preserving First Amendment rights and fostering a beneficial environment for the entire entertainment software industry.” More »
E3 Floor Plan Revised To Match Your Inner Cynic
5:30PM Luke Plunkett | That E3 floor plan released a couple days back? Looked pretty! And yeah, I guess it’s accurate, but what’s accuracy compared to a tandem bike that’s being propelled by cynicism in the front and comedy in back? It’s nothing, that’s what. Here, then, courtesy of the-minusworld is an alternative E3 floor plan for your perusal. And while the majority of it is going for laughs, I can assure you, I’m yet to see a Square Enix booth that’s anything but a large, tightly-monitored sex-guessing hutch. E3 2008’s Rapidly Shrinking Floorplan Revealed! [the-minusworld] More »
E3 Floorplan, Exhibitor List Revealed
11:00AM Michael McWhertor | The official E3 Media & Business Summit has laid out its plans for this year’s show, which returns to the Los Angeles Convention Centre and is now confirmed to be completely devoid of off-topic spectacle. E3’s past used to fill South, West, Petree, Concourse and Kentia Halls, but E3 2008 will occupy just the Concourse Hall, a massive scaling back of space. E3 exhibitors will still occupy meeting rooms in other halls, but to say that E3 is but a mere shadow of its previous incarnations wouldn’t be inaccurate, as the bigger booths shown above occupy a 20′ by 20′ area. We’ll sure miss the booth babe photo ops. Again. For the full list of attendees, which is not represented well by the map above, make the jump. More »
Gov. Perry to Keynote E3
11:36PM Brian Crecente | Texas Governor Rick Perry will be speaking at this year’s E3 Media & Business Summit in July, the Entertainment Software Association Announced. “Governor Perry and the E3 Media & Business Summit are both great success stories. The Governor’s keynote address is especially timely given the high concentration of entertainment software developers and publishers in Texas as well as the state’s long-standing support of our industry,” said Michael D. Gallagher, CEO of the ESA, which represents U.S. computer and video game publishers. “The Governor’s forward-thinking leadership in encouraging the growth and development of our $US 18 billion industry is a roadmap for other state executives who want to transform their state economies for the 21st century.” The governor will be talking about the confluence of politics and video games, a topic that is likely to come to a head this election. More »
7 Reasons Why There Will Be A Redesigned DS
7:00PM Brian Ashcraft | When Nintendo’s not making games, it’s redesigning hardware. When it’s not redesigning hardware, it’s denying hardware revisions. Previously, Famitsu boss Hirokazu Hamamura said a new DS was coming to E3, a rumour which Nintendo and Hanamura later denied. Now game site GamesRadar contacted Nintendo about the rumour. Nintendo’s reply? No announcement has been made by Nintendo and everything reported online is pure speculation and rumour. Our hardware development team always work on the next product after we launch one hardware. It is usual that a new model will be brought to the market when we can not offer new ideas with the current model, but we think Nintendo DS is not at that stage yet, and we’d like to keep offering all sorts of suggestions to enrich the lives of people who own a Nintendo DS. Hit the jump for GameRadar’s seven reasons why we’ll see a new DS sooner than later. More »
News
EA Announced E3 Plans
4:00AM Brian Crecente | Not a whole lot of substance here, but Electronic Arts today confirmed their continuing support of E3 by announcing their official show press conference. The publisher plans on taking over LA’s Orpheum Theatre on Monday at 3 p.m. For those of you keeping track, that’s technically the day before the show starts. More »
Industry Insiders Discuss ESA, E3’s Future
7:40AM Kotaku US Edition | What’s the fate of E3, and of the Entertainment Software Association? It’s worth examining in light of recent events. This morning we broke the news that two major publishers, Activision and Vivendi, have decided to take a pass on the event and exit the trade association, while other companies have withdrawn their E3 attendance as well. At the same time, the ESA appears to be facing stirrings of industry discontent with the ESA’s leadership, namely its current president, Mike Gallagher. E3 is not the boon to publishers that it once was, says Penny Arcade’s director of business development Robert Khoo, who as the organiser of the PAX fan expo clearly has an interest, to say the least, in how things turn out. “The reason that E3 imploded in recent years was because the publishers felt that it turned into this sort of pissing contest between them… where they were trying to figure out who could one-up each other,” Khoo said. “They all thought to themselves that it just wasn’t worth it.”
News
Five Publishers Drop Out of E3 This Year, Some Blame ESA President
3:53AM Kotaku US Edition | By: Brian Crecente and Leigh Alexander Rumoured developer displeasure with Entertainment Software Association president Mike Gallagher may be partially to blame for nearly half a dozen member publishers dropping out of this year’s E3 conference, Kotaku has learned. This morning we broke the news that not only are Vivendi and Activision not attending this year’s E3 they’ve both decided to drop out of the association all together. We’ve since learned that NCSoft, Her Interactive and id Software have all decided not to attend this year’s show, though they are all remaining members of the association. Only NCSoft had returned calls about the decision as of press time, saying that their decision to not attend E3 this year, the first time they won’t in the company’s history, was due to the development cycle of their games and in no way reflects on the ESA or it’s leadership. But several industry sources who wish to remain anonymous say Gallagher is in part to blame for issues surrounding this year’s E3.
News
ESA Confirms Activision/Vivendi Departure
1:08AM Kotaku US Edition | The Entertainment Software Association told Kotaku today that both Activision and Vivendi are no longer a part of the industry trade organisation, confirming a rumour we broke earlier this morning. More »
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