Electronic Entertainment Expo

Electronic Entertainment Expo
The Los Angeles Convention Center (west wing view) where the event is annually held.
Status Active
Genre Video games
Interactive entertainment
Venue Los Angeles Convention Center
Location(s) Los Angeles, California
Coordinates 34°02′23″N 118°16′13″W / 34.039737°N 118.270293°W / 34.039737; -118.270293Coordinates: 34°02′23″N 118°16′13″W / 34.039737°N 118.270293°W / 34.039737; -118.270293
Country United States
Inaugurated May 11, 1995 (1995-05-11)
Most recent June 2018 (2018-06)
Next event June 11, 2019 (2019-06-11)
Attendance Increase 69,200 (2018)[1]
Organized by Entertainment Software Association
Website https://www.e3expo.com/
Callaham, John (2007-06-19). "Looking back at E3". FiringSquad. Retrieved 2007-06-22.
Logo until October 2017.

The Electronic Entertainment Expo, commonly referred to as E3, is a premier trade event for the video game industry.[2] Presented and organized by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), it is used by many developers, publishers, and hardware and accessory manufacturers to introduce and advertise upcoming games and game-related merchandise to retailers and members of the press.

The E3 event formally includes an exhibition floor for developers, publishers, and manufacturers to showcase titles and products to be sold in the upcoming year. In the few days before the event, the largest publishers and hardware manufacturers will hold an hour-long press conference to outline their offerings that will be on display, and which feature announcements of new games and products. E3 is considered to be the biggest gaming news expo of the year in North America. E3 was formerly an industry-only event;[3] individuals who wished to attend were required by the ESA to verify a professional connection to the video-game industry. With the rise of streaming media, several of the press conferences were broadcast to the public to increase their visibility. In 2017, E3 became open to the public for the first time, issuing 15,000 general admittance passes for those who wanted to attend.[4]

Since 2009 E3 is held in June at the Los Angeles Convention Center (LACC) in Los Angeles; the most recent event was held from June 12–14, 2018. The show in 2019 is scheduled for June 11–13, 2019.[5]

History

Before E3, game publishers went to other trade shows to display new or upcoming products; these include the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) and the European Computer Trade Show. As the game industry grew rapidly during the early 1990s, industry professionals felt that it had outgrown the older trade shows. According to Tom Kalinske, CEO of Sega America, "The CES organizers used to put the video games industry way, way in the back. In 1991 they put us in a tent, and you had to walk past all the porn vendors to find us. That particular year it was pouring rain, and the rain leaked right over our new Genesis system. I was just furious with the way CES treated the video games industry, and I felt we were a more important industry than they were giving us credit for." Sega did not return to the CES the following year, and several other companies exited from further CES shows.[6]

Separately, in 1994, the video game industry had formed the Interactive Digital Software Association (IDSA, later becoming the Entertainment Software Association, ESA, in 2003) in response to attention the industry had drawn from the United States Congress over a lack of a ratings system in late 1993. The IDSA was formed to unify the video game industry and establish a commission, the Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB) to create a voluntary standard rating system that was approved by Congress.[7][8]

The industry recognized that it needed some type of trade show for retailers. According to Eliot Minsker, chairman and CEO of Knowledge Industry Publications (which produced and promoted the show with Infotainment World), "Retailers have pointed to the need for an interpretive event that will help them make smarter buying decisions by interacting with a wide range of publishers, vendors, industry influentials, and opinion leaders in a focused show setting."[9] Attempts were made between the video game companies and the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) which ran CES, to improve how video games were treated at CES, but these negotiations failed to produce a result.[7] Pat Ferrell, creator of GamePro which was owned by International Data Group (IDG), conceived of an idea for starting a dedicated trade show for video games, building off IDG's established experience in running the Macworld convention. Ferrell contacted the IDSA who saw the appeal of using their position in the industry to create a video game-specific tradeshow, and offered to co-found the Electronic Entertainment Expo with IDG.[7]

Though several companies agreed to present at this E3 event, Ferrell discovered that CEA had offered video game companies a dedicated space at the next CES, which would have conflicted with the planned E3 event, requiring the companies to pick one or the other. Most of the IDSA members supported E3, while Nintendo and Microsoft were still supportive of the CES approach. After about three-to-four months, Ferrell was told by CEA's CEO Gary Shapiro that he "won" and had cancelled the CES video game event, effectively making E3 the premier trade show for the video game industry.[7]

1995–2006

Los Angeles Convention Center during E3 2005, with Atari banner hangs over the South Hall lobby

The first event was held from May 11–13, 1995 at the Los Angeles Convention Center, which would generally be the convention's location in future years.[10] The organizers were unsure of how successful this would be, but by the end of the convention, they had booked most of the space at the Convention Center, and saw more than 40,000 attendees.[7] In the aftermath of its first year, E3 was already regarded as the biggest event in the video game industry.[11] The IDSA realized the strength of debut trade show, and subsequently renegotiated with IDG to allow the IDSA to take full ownership of the show and the intellectual property associated with the name, while hiring IDG to help with execution of the event.[7] The show remained held at May of the calendar year through 2006.

In 1996, IDG and the IDSA tried a Japanese version of E3, in preparation for a worldwide series of events, at the Makuhari Messe in Tokyo (as E3 Tokyo '96) in association with TV Asahi. Although Sony Computer Entertainment was the show's original sponsor, the company withdrew its support in favor of its PlayStation Expo. Sega pulled out at the last minute, leaving Nintendo the only big-three company to appear. Held November 1–4, 1996, the presence of several other gaming expos and lack of support from Japanese game manufacturers led to turnout reported as poor[12][13] and rumored E3 events in Singapore and Canada did not take place.[14]

Due to failed negotiations for the convention space in Los Angeles, the 1997 and 1998 E3 conventions were held at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, Georgia.[15][16] The show returned to the Los Angeles Convention Center in 1999, and continued to grow in attendance, ranging from 60,000 to 70,000 attendees.[7]

In addition to the event, E3 started to support (or became associated with) several websites. One was E365, introduced in 2006,[17] an online community which attendees used to network and schedule meetings.

2007 and 2008

Following the 2006 convention, IDGA—now ESA—found that many exhibitors were worried about the high costs of presenting at the event, spending between $5–$10 million for their booths.[7] They had also found that a larger proportion of attendees were bloggers and attendees who were not perceived to be industry professionals by vendors, managing to secure access to the conference. These additional attendees diluted the vendors' ability to reach out to their target audience, retailers and journalists.[18] Both of these reasons had previously caused the COMDEX trade show to shut down.[18] Several large vendors told the ESA that they were going to pull out of the next E3, which would have had a domino effect on other vendors.[7]

To avoid this, the ESA announced in July 2006 that E3 would be downsized and restructured due to the overwhelming demand from the exhibitors, and would limit attendees to those from the media and retail sectors.[19] For 2007 and 2008, E3 was renamed to the E3 Media and Business Summit, and moved into the July timeframe, about two months later in the year than previous shows. The 2007 show was held at the Barker Hanger at the Santa Monica Airport and other nearby hotels in Santa Monica, California, limited attendance to about 10,000.[15] The 2008 event returned to the Los Angeles Convention Center, but also capped attendance at about 5,000.[20]

ESA was harshly criticized for these smaller events.[20][7] Industry analyst Michael Pachter said that because consumers had been eliminated from attending the events, there was little external media coverage of these E3's, reducing the visibility and commercialization opportunities for publishers, and postulated that without a change, E3 would become extinct.[21] Pachter also found that retailers were less interested in E3 due to the later calendar date.[22]

2009 onward

Responding to the complaints from the previous two years, the ESA announced that the 2009 E3 would be more open, but capping attendance at about 45,000 and closed to the public, as to achieve a balance between the two extremes.[7] All subsequent E3s have taken place in June of the calendar year at the Los Angeles Convention Center.[7]

E3 2015 with Uncharted 4: A Thief's End banner

Starting in 2013, some of the major video game companies, particularly Nintendo and Electronic Arts, have opted not to showcase at E3. In Nintendo's case, they have foregone a large keynote presentation and instead have used pre-recorded Nintendo Direct and live video events during the E3 week since 2013 to showcase their new products, though they still run floor booths for hands-on demonstrations.[7] Electronic Arts since 2016 has set up a separate EA Play event in a nearby locale to announce and exhibit their titles, citing the move as a result of the lack of public access to the main E3 show.[23] Other vendors, like Microsoft and Sony have used pre-E3 events to showcase hardware reveals, leaving the E3 event to cover new games for these systems.[7]

Since 2015, the ESA has sought ways to bring public members to the event, as industry have seen increased publicity of their games through word-of-mouth by average gamers.[23][24] In 2015, 5000 tickets were distributed to vendors to be given to fans to be able to attend the event.[25] E3 2016 featured a separate but free "E3 Live" event at the nearby L.A. Live space that was to help provide a small-scale version of the E3 experience. While it drew about 20,000 people, it was found to be underwhelming.[26][27] In 2017, the ESA reserved 15,000 tickets to the convention for members of the public to buy;[28] these were all sold, leading to more than 68,000 attendees during E3 2017, which led to noticeable crowding and floor management issues.[29][30] ESA confirmed that the 2018 E3 will still include public passes, but that for two of the days, the event will be open only to industry attendees for three hours prior to admitting the public.[31]

The ESA unveiled the new logo for E3, replacing its previous one using three-dimensional block letters with a flatter, stylized graphic, in October 2017.[32]

While the ESA has the Convention Center space reserved through 2019, ESA's CEO Mike Gallagher said, following the 2017 event, that they were considering other options due to lack of modernization and upgrades that the Center has had to make the space more appropriate for their needs.[33] Gallagher said that the ESA was working with the City and Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG) which owns the Los Angeles Convention Center and the space around it, with plans to have nearly 500,000 square feet (46,000 m2) of additional exhibition space added by 2020, but they would have judge this in the 2018 show.[34] With Electronic Entertainment Expo 2018, the event drew 69,200 attendees, the largest since 2005.[1]

With announcements of the dates for the E3 2019 show, the ESA declined to state where they have planned to hold the 2020 event.[5]

Event history

Event name Dates Location Attendance Major Presenters Notes
E3 1995 May 11–13, 1995 Los Angeles Convention Center, Los Angeles, California 40,000 Nintendo, Sega, Sony Debut show.
E3 1996 May 16–18, 1996 57,795[35] Nintendo, Sega, Scavenger, Inc., Sony[36]
E3 1997 June 19–21, 1997 Georgia World Congress Center, Atlanta, Georgia Nintendo, Sega, Sony Moved to Atlanta due to inability to secure LA Convention Center.
E3 1998 May 28–30, 1998 Nintendo, Sega, Sony
E3 1999 May 13–15, 1999 Los Angeles Convention Center, Los Angeles, California Nintendo, Sega, Sony
E3 2000 May 11–13, 2000 Microsoft, Nintendo, Sega, Sony
E3 2001 May 17–19, 2001 Microsoft, Nintendo, Sega, Sony
E3 2002 May 22–24, 2002 Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony
E3 2003 May 14–16, 2003 Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony
E3 2004 May 11–14, 2004 Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony
E3 2005 May 18–20, 2005 70,000 Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony Current E3 attendance record.[1]
E3 2006 May 10–12, 2006 Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony
E3 Media & Business Summit 2007 July 11–13, 2007 Santa Monica Airport, Santa Monica, California 10,000 Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony
E3 Media & Business Summit 2008 July 15–17, 2008 Los Angeles Convention Center, Los Angeles, California 10,000 Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony
E3 2009 June 2–4, 2009 41,000 Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony
E3 2010 June 14–17, 2010 45,600 Electronic Arts, Konami, Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony, Ubisoft
E3 2011 June 7–9, 2011 46,800 Electronic Arts, Konami, Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony, Ubisoft
E3 2012 June 5–7, 2012 45,700 Electronic Arts, Konami, Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony, Ubisoft
E3 2013 June 11–13, 2013 48,200 Electronic Arts, Konami, Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony, Ubisoft Nintendo began their tradition of using pre-recorded video events rather than a press conference from this show onward.
E3 2014 June 10–12, 2014 48,900 Electronic Arts, Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony, Ubisoft
E3 2015 June 16–18, 2015 52,200 Bethesda Softworks, Electronic Arts, Microsoft, Nintendo, Oculus VR, Sony, Square Enix, Ubisoft Introduction of the "PC Gaming Show", featuring games for personal computers across a range of developers and publishers. Since this year Bethesda Softworks held its own annual conference.
E3 2016 June 14–16, 2016 50,300 Bethesda Softworks, Electronic Arts, Kadokawa Games, Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony, Square Enix, Ubisoft Starting from this year, Electronic Arts did not present at the convention center but at a separate "EA Play" event prior to the start of E3.
E3 2017 June 13–15, 2017 68,400 Bethesda Softworks, Electronic Arts, Intel, Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony, Ubisoft, Devolver Digital First show open to public, with 15,000 public passes sold.
E3 2018 June 12–14, 2018 69,200 Bethesda Softworks, Electronic Arts, Microsoft, Nintendo, Square Enix, Sony, Ubisoft, Sega, Atlus, Devolver Digital and PC Gamer The event drew 69,200 attendees, the largest since 2005.
E3 2019 June 11–13, 2019 Last show at the Los Angeles Convention Center under the E3's current contract.[5]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 Lemon, Marshall (June 15, 2018). "E3 2018 attendance was highest since 2005". VG247. Retrieved June 15, 2018.
  2. ↑ "E3 Show Info". Retrieved June 14, 2017.
  3. ↑ "E3 is Obsolete, But it Doesn't Matter". Forbes. 2012-06-08. Retrieved 2012-10-18.
  4. ↑ "E3 Opens To The Public For The First Time Ever". GameSpot. May 16, 2017. Retrieved July 3, 2018.
  5. 1 2 3 Makuch, Eddie (June 14, 2018). "E3 2019 Dates Announced, And It's The Final Show Confirmed For Current Venue". GameSpot. Retrieved June 14, 2018.
  6. ↑ Dring, Christoffer (2013-07-11). "A Tale of Two E3s - Xbox vs Sony vs Sega". MCV.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Buckley, Sean (June 6, 2013). "Then there were three: Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo and the evolution of the Electronic Entertainment Expo". Engadget. Retrieved May 9, 2017.
  8. ↑ Kohler, Chris (July 29, 2009). "July 29, 1994: Videogame Makers Propose Ratings Board to Congress". Wired. Retrieved May 9, 2017.
  9. ↑ "Atlanta Chosen as Site for New Trade Show". GamePro (56). IDG. March 1994. p. 186.
  10. ↑ "E3 Replaces Summer CES". GamePro. No. 76. IDG. January 1995. p. 211.
  11. ↑ "Sneak Previews". GamePro. No. 93. IDG. June 1996. p. 28.
  12. ↑ "PlayStation Expo: Sony Shows Off in Japan". Next Generation. No. 25. Imagine Media. January 1997. p. 16. And as for next-door's E3 Tokyo? Sad and tiny. Assault Suit Lynos 2 was the biggest stand-out in a sea of mediocre edutainment and Myst clones.
  13. ↑ "Sony PlayStation Expo '96". GamePro. No. 101. IDG. February 1997. pp. 44–45. E3 Tokyo attracted just 30,000 visitors with its mostly edutainment-oriented mix of software. PS Expo, on the other hand, played host to 54,000 PlayStation faithful!
  14. ↑ "任天堂もSEGAもSONYもいないE3/Tokyo'96". PC Watch. 1996-11-01. Retrieved 2011-04-12.
  15. 1 2 Varanini, Giancarlo. "E3: Past, Present, and Future". Gamespot. Retrieved June 16, 2016.
  16. ↑ Gallager, James (June 3, 2010). "PlayStation at E3: 1997". PlayStation Blog. Retrieved May 9, 2017.
  17. ↑ "E365". Archived from the original on 2007-10-13.
  18. 1 2 Fisher, Ken (July 30, 2006). "E3 game trade show not canceled, but will be downsized". Retrieved June 2, 2007.
  19. ↑ "ESA confirms much smaller E3 in '07". 2006-07-31. Retrieved 2007-06-02.
  20. 1 2 Sinclar, Brendan (August 1, 2016). "That time the industry almost killed E3". GamesIndustry.biz. Retrieved May 9, 2017.
  21. ↑ Martin, Matt (July 21, 2008). "E3 is headed for extinction - Pachter". GamesIndustry.biz. Retrieved May 9, 2017.
  22. ↑ Boyer, Brandon (July 16, 2007). "Pachter: E3 Was A 'Terrible Disappointment'". Gamasutra. Retrieved May 9, 2017.
  23. 1 2 Kohler, Chris (March 8, 2016). "It's the End of E3 As We Know It". Wired. Retrieved February 8, 2017.
  24. ↑ Staff (February 9, 2017). ""This move is long overdue" - Industry responds to E3 going public". GamesIndustry.biz. Retrieved February 9, 2017.
  25. ↑ Pierson, David; Villarreal, Whip (June 16, 2015). "E3 gains publicity by letting in video game fans for the first time". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved February 7, 2017.
  26. ↑ Brightman, James (June 17, 2016). "E3 Live completely disappoints fans". GamesIndustry.biz. Retrieved February 8, 2017.
  27. ↑ Crecente, Brian (February 8, 2017). "E3 2017 will open up 15,000 tickets for purchase by the public". Polygon. Retrieved February 8, 2017.
  28. ↑ Carter, Chris (February 8, 2017). "E3 is open to the public this year, 15,000 tickets go on sale Monday". Destructoid. Retrieved February 8, 2017.
  29. ↑ Green, Holly (June 14, 2017). "E3 Is Too Crowded Now (And That Sucks)". Paste. Retrieved June 15, 2017.
  30. ↑ Sinclair, Brendan (June 14, 2017). "Fan reaction to E3 mixed". GamesIndustry.biz. Retrieved June 15, 2017.
  31. ↑ McAloon, Alissa (February 6, 2018). "Though still open to the public, E3 2018 has dedicated 'industry only' hours". Gamasutra. Retrieved February 6, 2018.
  32. ↑ Makedonski, Brett (October 16, 2017). "E3 has a new logo and it's automatically better than the old one". Destructoid. Retrieved October 16, 2017.
  33. ↑ Makuch, Eddie (June 15, 2017). "E3 2017 Attendance Revealed, Future In LA Uncertain". GameSpot. Retrieved June 15, 2017.
  34. ↑ Drung, Christopher (June 21, 2017). "ESA ponders E3's future". GamesIndustry.biz. Retrieved June 22, 2017.
  35. ↑ "Data Stream". Next Generation. No. 20. Imagine Media. August 1996. p. 26.
  36. ↑ "E3: Nintendo Rekindles Mario's Magic". Next Generation. No. 20. Imagine Media. August 1996. pp. 25–26.
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