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Speaker 1: Welcome to Tech Stuff, a production from iHeartRadio. Hey there,

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Speaker 1: and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host Jonathan Strickland.

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Speaker 1: I'm an executive producer with iHeartRadio. And how the tech

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Speaker 1: are you now? In case you're listening to this episode

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Speaker 1: from the future, I hope things are going well there.

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Speaker 1: It originally published on June twelfth, twenty twenty three. This

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Speaker 1: week was supposed to serve as a triumphant return for

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Speaker 1: one of the more famous tech conferences here in the

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Speaker 1: United States, that of E three aka the Electronic Entertainment Expo.

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Speaker 1: At least for most years. It was intended to happen

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Speaker 1: from June thirteenth to the sixteenth, but earlier this year,

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Speaker 1: the Entertainment Software Association or ESA announced that the event

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Speaker 1: was not going to happen after all. Now, folks have

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Speaker 1: been predicting the death of E three or a really

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Speaker 1: long time now, like more than a decade, for lots

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Speaker 1: of different reasons. And in the void left by E three,

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Speaker 1: we've seen the rise of the Summer Game Fest held

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Speaker 1: by Jeff Keeley. In fact, the twenty twenty three Summer

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Speaker 1: Game Fest launched last week, and some game companies are

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Speaker 1: still hosting streams showing off upcoming titles today and this week.

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Speaker 1: But what the heck happened with E three? What caused

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Speaker 1: that event to fall apart? And why were so many

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Speaker 1: people not surprised by it? And could it actually be

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Speaker 1: gone for good? Now, to answer those questions, we first

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Speaker 1: need to remind ourselves about what E three is all

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Speaker 1: about and why it exists in the first place. Then

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Speaker 1: we can talk about some of the factors that have

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Speaker 1: contributed to E three's decline in the industry. So first up,

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Speaker 1: let's go back to that organization I had mentioned earlier,

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Speaker 1: the EESA. Now, the original name for that organization was

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Speaker 1: the Interactive Digital Software Association or IDSSA, which launched in

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Speaker 1: nineteen ninety four as a response to an existential threat

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Speaker 1: to the video game industry, namely the United States Congress.

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Speaker 1: For years, video games had been seen as being relatively simplistic.

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Speaker 1: It was a common assumption among certain demographics of the

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Speaker 1: population the video games were just toys, they're distractions for children,

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Speaker 1: and that games are meant for kids. If you were

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Speaker 1: over the age of fifteen and you admitted that you

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Speaker 1: liked video games, you'd probably get some curious looks from

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Speaker 1: older folks, and they might write you off as being childish.

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Speaker 1: And so when it became obvious that video games had

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Speaker 1: evolved well beyond pac Man and Cubert, some leaders got

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Speaker 1: very concerned, very quickly, mostly because they were still operating

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Speaker 1: under this mistaken assumption that all games are just for kids.

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Speaker 1: In nineteen ninety two, we got the first Mortal Kombat game. Now,

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Speaker 1: that game purposefully pushed the envelope when it came to

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Speaker 1: depicting violence on screen, although by today's standards you would

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Speaker 1: have to call it almost quaint in comparison, particularly if

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Speaker 1: you compare it with more recent Mortal Kombat titles that

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Speaker 1: go far, far harder when it comes to graphic violence

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Speaker 1: and gore. But the Mortal Kombat, the original Mortal Kombat,

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Speaker 1: absolutely horrified some of the more shall we say, reserved

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Speaker 1: folks in Congress. And so there was this rising threat

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Speaker 1: that the US government was going to create regulations for

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Speaker 1: the video game industry and perhaps pass legislation that would

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Speaker 1: severely hurt video game companies. To head off that possibility,

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Speaker 1: the various major video game companies banded together and they

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Speaker 1: formed an independent agency, which at that time was the IDSA,

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Speaker 1: and I think it was two thousand and three when

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Speaker 1: it would turn into the ESA. Now it would be

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Speaker 1: this group's responsibility to represent the industry as a whole

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Speaker 1: to lawmakers and to create a ratings system that the

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Speaker 1: industry could apply to games, and that way they could

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Speaker 1: avoid imperial entanglements, as ben Kenobi would say. To that end,

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Speaker 1: the IDSA created the Entertainment Software Ratings Board or ESRB.

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Speaker 1: This is kind of like a subcommittee. It's a board

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Speaker 1: that evaluates upcoming video game titles and then assigns content

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Speaker 1: and age ratings for those games. That way, the moms

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Speaker 1: and dads out there won't be shocked when their little

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Speaker 1: rugrats bring home a copy of Bayonetta and then they

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Speaker 1: see that there's a woman in a latex body suit

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Speaker 1: wearing eight inch stiletto heels doing splits all over the

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Speaker 1: screen while shooting demons with guns that are strapped to

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Speaker 1: our feet. That's, of course, assuming that the moms and

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Speaker 1: dads out there actually paying attention to the ratings that

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Speaker 1: are on these games, which frequently doesn't happen. But that's

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Speaker 1: not the idsa's vault or the ESA's fault. We're talking

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Speaker 1: these days. Now, What does this have to do with

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Speaker 1: E three. Well. E three actually served a couple of purposes.

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Speaker 1: One of those was to generate money that could pay

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Speaker 1: the expenses of the ESA in general and the ESRB

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Speaker 1: in particular. So about a little it's not quite half

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Speaker 1: and half, but about half of the funding would come

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Speaker 1: from dues that the various companies in the industry were

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Speaker 1: paying to be part of the ESA, and the other

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Speaker 1: half or so would be coming from E three, which

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Speaker 1: would be this big exhibition and companies would pay to

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Speaker 1: be a part of it, and E three would generate

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Speaker 1: a lot of the revenue that would support the ESA

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Speaker 1: throughout the year. However, that was just one reason for

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Speaker 1: E three. The other reason for E three is that

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Speaker 1: back in the mid nineties it was challenging for video

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Speaker 1: game companies to get publicity. You know, there were magazines

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Speaker 1: that covered the video game space, but they had limited

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Speaker 1: reach and limited circulation. You could pay to have a

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Speaker 1: space at CEES, that's the Consumer Electronics Show, but more

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Speaker 1: often than not, video game companies found themselves shuffled off

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Speaker 1: to a remote table, sometimes out in the parking lot

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Speaker 1: under a tent, rather than being part of the convention

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Speaker 1: hall itself. Plus, these companies were competing for attention with

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Speaker 1: every other electronics company out there. That meant they were

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Speaker 1: spending a lot of money to have a presence at

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Speaker 1: an event where they were largely ignored by press and

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Speaker 1: the event staff. There was very little return on investment.

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Speaker 1: In other words, you felt like you were an outsider,

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Speaker 1: even though by the rules you should be just as

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Speaker 1: important as any other attendee at the exhibit. Of course,

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Speaker 1: cees there's a scale for which you will be judged.

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Speaker 1: Then the larger companies are spending way, way, way more

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Speaker 1: money to have a very large presence on the floor itself.

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Speaker 1: But that gets off track. Creating a separate trade show,

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Speaker 1: one that would focus solely on companies in the video

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Speaker 1: game space would give developers and publishers and hardware manufacturers

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Speaker 1: a spotlight both for the media and to end up

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Speaker 1: working with retailers to make sure that their products would

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Speaker 1: be sold in stores. They would still have to compete

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Speaker 1: with each other to get attention from the media and retailers,

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Speaker 1: but it would still be far more focused than a

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Speaker 1: general tech event. Now I have done full episodes about

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Speaker 1: the history of E three, and a full detailed history

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Speaker 1: is a real roller coaster. There were years that were

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Speaker 1: legendarily influential and years where folks made some questionable decisions

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Speaker 1: in an effort to promote a game, or a company

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Speaker 1: or the event itself. And yeah, to go into it

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Speaker 1: in detail would be a little repetitive of things have

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Speaker 1: already done. But we're going to hit some of the highlights.

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Speaker 1: So nineteen ninety five is when the first E three launched,

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Speaker 1: and from ninety five to two thousand and six E

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Speaker 1: three would grow. There were a couple of setbacks, but

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Speaker 1: generally speaking, it grew year over year and became more

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Speaker 1: and more extravagant, and as a consequence, it also became

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Speaker 1: more and more expensive. Companies were shelling out big bucks

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Speaker 1: for elaborate booth spaces. They would staff these booths with

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Speaker 1: lots of really attractive people. This would be the era

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Speaker 1: of the so called booth bases. These would be women

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Speaker 1: who would be hired to wear costumes, often provocative ones,

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Speaker 1: and to promote specific games and franchises. Not the most

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Speaker 1: progressive of approaches, I have to say. Companies would host

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Speaker 1: these huge parties and they would invite industry and media

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Speaker 1: to attend them. And this was really before my time

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Speaker 1: as a tech podcaster. So I never went to E

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Speaker 1: three during this era. I heard about it, and it's

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Speaker 1: probably for the best that I never went, because I

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Speaker 1: am notoriously boring at parties. I am, I guess decent

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Speaker 1: and one on one and small groups, But throw me

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Speaker 1: in a party and it's just the worst. You might

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Speaker 1: as well have just saved the invite for somebody who's

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Speaker 1: more interesting and fun. But anyway, things were getting pretty

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Speaker 1: rowdy over at E three and the attendee list was

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Speaker 1: starting to include more non traditional media types. So early on,

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Speaker 1: the people who were going to E three in the

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Speaker 1: media side, they were journalists from like tech publications as

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Speaker 1: well as larger media outlets. But as E three matured,

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Speaker 1: so too did the web, and this brought a new

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Speaker 1: breed of media, the blogger. Now, some of these bloggers

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Speaker 1: were former journalists and reporters, and they had that background,

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Speaker 1: but a lot of them were, you know, blogs that

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Speaker 1: were run by a person who was hard working. They

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Speaker 1: were enterprising, they were enthusiastic, but they didn't necessarily have

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Speaker 1: that background in journalism or reporting. They were kind of

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Speaker 1: a grassroots effort to build up a brand, and it

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Speaker 1: was working, and more and more of them were attending

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Speaker 1: E three. But that meant that at least among some people,

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Speaker 1: there was this perceived decline in professionalism at E three,

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Speaker 1: and that it was starting to turn more into a

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Speaker 1: party atmosphere and less of a trade show. Worse, some

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Speaker 1: of the companies that were exhibiting were starting to feel

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Speaker 1: like all these ding dang bloggers were getting in the

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Speaker 1: way of interacting with the folks who quote unquote really mattered,

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Speaker 1: like the larger press outlets and retailers. So if you're

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Speaker 1: spending all your time talking to Jimbob of jim Bob's

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Speaker 1: Big Old Games blog, and it means you miss out

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Speaker 1: on your chance to chat with Walt Mossberg of the

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Speaker 1: Wall Street Journal. So I'm talking about back in the day.

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Speaker 1: Mosburg doesn't write for the Journal anymore, but when he did,

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Speaker 1: you know you wanted to get some time with him. Well,

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Speaker 1: if it turned out that you were spending all your

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Speaker 1: time talking with these much smaller media personalities, you would

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Speaker 1: end up saying, why are we spending millions of dollars

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Speaker 1: to not talk to the people who matter. The ESA,

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Speaker 1: sensing that things were possibly starting to go south, made

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Speaker 1: a bold decision, which was a decision to be less

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Speaker 1: bold ironically, the E three events in two thousand and

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Speaker 1: seven and two thousand and eight would be scaled back considerably,

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Speaker 1: with the focus reverted to being about the business of

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Speaker 1: video games, so it'd be much more reserved and professional

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Speaker 1: or boring if you prefer, and the attendees list would

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Speaker 1: be restricted accordingly. Suddenly all those bloggers found it impossible

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Speaker 1: to attend, their applications would be denied. While E three

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Speaker 1: had a couple of hiccups before this change in two

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Speaker 1: thousand and seven, I really think it was the two

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Speaker 1: thousand and seven in two thousand and eight years for

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Speaker 1: E three that started to prompt people to predict E

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Speaker 1: three was on the way out there. Like I said,

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Speaker 1: had been a couple of hiccups earlier. There were a

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Speaker 1: couple of times where E three had to move. In fact,

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Speaker 1: it moved to Atlanta, Georgia. I was not in the

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Speaker 1: industry at the time, so I didn't attend, despite the

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Speaker 1: fact that it was just down the street from me.

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Speaker 1: But yeah, it was. It moved to Atlanta, Georgia, and

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Speaker 1: attendance plummeted because a lot of people were located out

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Speaker 1: west and they didn't want to take the journey all

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Speaker 1: the way east to attend E three. So yeah, there

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Speaker 1: were a couple of times before two thousand and seven

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Speaker 1: where things were a little slow, but generally speaking, up

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Speaker 1: to two thousand and seven, E three was just growing

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Speaker 1: and growing and growing, and that meant that when the

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Speaker 1: ESA decided to cut way way back on the excess

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Speaker 1: of E three, it prompted the doom and gloom soothsayers,

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Speaker 1: but it wasn't over just yet. We're going to take

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Speaker 1: a quick break. When we come back, we'll talk more

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Speaker 1: about E three's journey toward cancelation. Okay, before the break,

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Speaker 1: we were talking about how the ESA decided to make

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Speaker 1: E three more professional in two thousand and seven, two

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Speaker 1: thousand and eight, they cut way back on the event.

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Speaker 1: They spread the event across multiple locations in Los Angeles,

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Speaker 1: they restricted media access to just a couple of outlets,

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Speaker 1: and this, like I said, prompted some people to say

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Speaker 1: it was the beginning of the end for E three,

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Speaker 1: And you could kind of see why. The change meant

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Speaker 1: that the media presence at E three was much much smaller,

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Speaker 1: and that meant consumers weren't really getting a look at

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Speaker 1: upcoming titles the way they had been in just the

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Speaker 1: previous couple of years, so consumers weren't really getting excited.

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Speaker 1: They didn't have anything to be excited about. They didn't

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Speaker 1: have this big event to talk about, and that change

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Speaker 1: would then affect the video game companies as well. So

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Speaker 1: once again, the essay received pressure from multiple parties, from

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Speaker 1: video game companies, from media outlets, from retailers too, to

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Speaker 1: change the event. Again, the argument was that the ESA

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Speaker 1: had overcorrected in an attempt to inject professionalism in E three.

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Speaker 1: Soh the ESA started easing back into more of what

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Speaker 1: E three was like before two thousand and seven, and

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Speaker 1: this would start in two thousand and nine. The organization

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Speaker 1: tried to manage the events growth. They capped attendance. They

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Speaker 1: didn't want A three to just explode to a point

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Speaker 1: where it was an unmanageable, chaotic mess. But they also

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Speaker 1: didn't want it to feel so buttoned down and restrictive,

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Speaker 1: so they started to allow some bloggers and podcasters to

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Speaker 1: attend as media. That's how I would end up going

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Speaker 1: back in the day. In fact, I think my first

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Speaker 1: E three was two thousand and nine, although I could

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Speaker 1: be wrong about that. I'm really terrible at remembering specific

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Speaker 1: dates of things. That I've gone to, but it was

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Speaker 1: definitely after the two thousand and seven two thousand and

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Speaker 1: eight scaling back session. But the general public still would

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Speaker 1: not be part of the E three experience, not yet. However,

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Speaker 1: during the time, web technology was reaching a point where,

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Speaker 1: at least for some companies, there began to be a

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Speaker 1: new question, which was does it even matter if we

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Speaker 1: attend E three? Does our participation mean anything now? For

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Speaker 1: smaller companies the answer was clearly yes. The independent developers

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Speaker 1: out there did not have the massive presence or platform

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Speaker 1: from which they could communicate directly to the public. They

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Speaker 1: didn't have that kind of space. But for some of

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Speaker 1: the really big companies out there in the video game space,

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Speaker 1: like EA aka Electronic Arts, there was no reason to

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Speaker 1: adhere to the schedule of E three. You could just

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Speaker 1: hold your own event, and you could do so on

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Speaker 1: your own terms. You could dictate the schedule, you could

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Speaker 1: end up making sure you're not competing with anyone else

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Speaker 1: who's in your space, and so they opted to do that.

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Speaker 1: They pulled out of E three. Now you could see

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Speaker 1: how this could have a huge, huge benefit to a

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Speaker 1: company like EA if your publicity plans HINGE on E three. Well,

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Speaker 1: then you have to get your projects into some sort

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Speaker 1: of presentable format by the time that event rolls around,

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Speaker 1: and you have no say in the timing of that event.

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Speaker 1: Right they've organized it, you know what the deadline is.

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Speaker 1: You can't move it, so you have to work according

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Speaker 1: to their schedule. That might mean putting together a demo

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Speaker 1: that ends up not even being a good representation of

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Speaker 1: the end product. You know, there's been that in a

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Speaker 1: lot of cases where people have presented cinematics representing a

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Speaker 1: game and it turns out the actual game looks drastically

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Speaker 1: different when it's in playable form. But that's kind of

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Speaker 1: the stuff that would happen when you don't have the

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Speaker 1: power to control the event itself. Plus you're still competing

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Speaker 1: with all the other companies in the industry at E three,

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Speaker 1: so you might be figuratively killing yourself to get a

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Speaker 1: really good demo or presentation together, and you still face

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Speaker 1: the possibility that not very many people are going to

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Speaker 1: see it because they all ended up going to a

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Speaker 1: competitor's keynote presentation instead. But if you hold your own event,

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Speaker 1: you can schedule it in your own time. You can

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Speaker 1: make sure that you're not overlapping with competitors. That guarantees

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Speaker 1: more of the spotlight for yourself, and these days video

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Speaker 1: games are much more high profile. So back in the

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Speaker 1: nineties you might have had to tempt some random reporter

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Speaker 1: into your booth just to get them to consider covering

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Speaker 1: your project. But by the late two thousands, video games

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Speaker 1: have become an undeniably huge business and there was no

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Speaker 1: shortage of coverage from mainstream media as well as smaller

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Speaker 1: independent outlets. In fact, these days, you can put out

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Speaker 1: a pre taped presentation on YouTube and then you can

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Speaker 1: just count on numerous YouTubers to do reaction videos to

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Speaker 1: your present and that spreads your marketing message further, and

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Speaker 1: all without you having to even pay for it. It's

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Speaker 1: a totally different world now. I cannot point to a

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Speaker 1: single year and say this is when it became clear

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Speaker 1: that E three's importance as far as promoting games had

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00:19:18,880 --> 00:19:23,000
Speaker 1: faded away, with one possible exception, but we'll get there,

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Speaker 1: because it was really more of a gradual decline. It

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Speaker 1: didn't happen at the same speed for every company I

305
00:19:29,960 --> 00:19:32,600
Speaker 1: did mention. Electronic Arts pulled out fairly early, but it

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Speaker 1: wouldn't be the only company others would follow suit. You

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00:19:36,320 --> 00:19:39,760
Speaker 1: had Nintendo that would withdraw from E three and just

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Speaker 1: hold its own Nintendo Direct event. You would have Activisions

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Speaker 1: step away. Then more recently, Sony would step away from

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Speaker 1: E three entirely to hold its own event. Other video

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Speaker 1: game publishers did the same. Some of them became known

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Speaker 1: for their own in person events, like Blizzard held BlizzCon,

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Speaker 1: and that was a very well known event still is

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Speaker 1: a very well known event. So you could say that

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Speaker 1: the video game industry had largely outgrown the need for

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Speaker 1: E three, at least from the promotional standpoint right. And

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Speaker 1: on the retail side, things had changed dramatically as well.

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Speaker 1: So back in the nineties you really needed to form

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Speaker 1: those strong relationships with retailers. You needed to make sure

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Speaker 1: that your games were being carried and best Buy and

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Speaker 1: in various retail establishments in malls whose names I totally

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Speaker 1: forget now because it's been so long since those even existed.

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Speaker 1: But today it's a totally different world. The name of

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Speaker 1: the game now is really digital distribution. Yes, there are

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Speaker 1: still companies making physical media, and you can buy physical

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Speaker 1: copies of games, at least some games, but more often

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Speaker 1: than not, people are buying games through an online store

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Speaker 1: like Steam or Epic, or even just a proprietary store

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Speaker 1: run by the video game publisher. But you're not having

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Speaker 1: to go through a retailer anymore, and that has changed

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Speaker 1: dramatically so that part of E three is no longer

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Speaker 1: as relevant. However, we're not yet done with E three,

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Speaker 1: so in twenty sixteen, the ESA decided to dip its

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Speaker 1: toe into the thought of opening up E three to

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Speaker 1: the public. Now, it didn't really go whole hog. In fact,

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00:21:27,240 --> 00:21:31,399
Speaker 1: it kept E three insulated from the public, but instead

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00:21:31,400 --> 00:21:35,199
Speaker 1: they set up a smaller space where the general public

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Speaker 1: could go. They kept a tight cap on attendance, but

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00:21:38,359 --> 00:21:43,879
Speaker 1: it was free to go, and the ESA didn't really

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Speaker 1: have experience in creating public facing events that you might

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Speaker 1: find at something like PACKS. Packs from the very beginning

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00:21:52,840 --> 00:21:57,359
Speaker 1: was considered as a public facing event. Originally PACK stood

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Speaker 1: for Penny Arcade Expo, and it was into to be

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Speaker 1: a gaming oriented event, whether that would be video games

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00:22:06,200 --> 00:22:09,560
Speaker 1: or tabletop games, all sorts of games. That was the

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00:22:09,600 --> 00:22:12,959
Speaker 1: whole intent of PACKS, and it grew and grew and

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Speaker 1: grew to the point where it rivaled and in some

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Speaker 1: cases got larger than E three and it was run

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Speaker 1: in a very different way. Well, the ESA didn't have

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Speaker 1: that experience, and a lot of attendees found that despite

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Speaker 1: the fact that the ESA was capping attendance, it still

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Speaker 1: was a very crowded space. It was hard to get

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Speaker 1: any appreciable time on popular titles, and you know, it

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Speaker 1: just wasn't fun. You were standing in line for a

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Speaker 1: lot of the time. You might get to play a

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Speaker 1: game for about five or ten minutes, and then you

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Speaker 1: had to go and stand in another line. By the way,

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Speaker 1: it was not that much different for media back in

359
00:22:53,520 --> 00:22:57,840
Speaker 1: the day. If you were important enough media, then you

360
00:22:57,840 --> 00:22:59,800
Speaker 1: could essentially get a skip to the head of the

361
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Speaker 1: line pass. But otherwise you'd be waiting in that line

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Speaker 1: with everybody else, trying to get some time on a

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00:23:07,600 --> 00:23:10,480
Speaker 1: title so you could form some impressions on it. It

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00:23:10,560 --> 00:23:14,320
Speaker 1: was not the most efficient or fun experience. I mean,

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00:23:14,359 --> 00:23:16,760
Speaker 1: it could always be exciting to get a chance to

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Speaker 1: play something that was you know, not even released yet,

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Speaker 1: but beyond that that, that initial little burst of dopamine

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00:23:25,480 --> 00:23:28,280
Speaker 1: was not enough to keep you going as you're waiting

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Speaker 1: for you know, hour number two to try the new

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Speaker 1: God of wargame for five minutes Meanwhile, the industry and

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Speaker 1: media attendees were looking at the general public the way

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Speaker 1: everyone else had been looking at bloggers back in two

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Speaker 1: thousand and six, you know, kind of with that snobby

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Speaker 1: look that people get. And I'll admit it, I was

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Speaker 1: one of those snobby people. But I wasn't so much

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Speaker 1: saying like, oh, the commoners have arrived. Instead, I was

377
00:23:54,840 --> 00:23:57,280
Speaker 1: just finding it harder and harder to cover E three

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Speaker 1: professionally because more folks were showing up and crowding up

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Speaker 1: the space. That crowding really began in twenty seventeen, because

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00:24:06,119 --> 00:24:09,399
Speaker 1: that's when the ESA did start selling tickets to the

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Speaker 1: general public. They had a limited number, I think it

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00:24:12,080 --> 00:24:15,520
Speaker 1: was like fifteen thousand that first year, but they were

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Speaker 1: selling those tickets and that gave them access to the

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Speaker 1: actual show floor. It was no longer a separate space.

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Speaker 1: If it had been a separate space, then it wouldn't

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Speaker 1: have had a big impact on the experience inside the

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Speaker 1: show itself. But you had the general public mingling with

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Speaker 1: industry and media and it just made it harder to

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00:24:34,359 --> 00:24:39,600
Speaker 1: get around and harder to get access to anything. So now,

390
00:24:40,359 --> 00:24:43,120
Speaker 1: on one hand, you could see the ESA's dilemma, right

391
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Speaker 1: because companies were starting to bow out of E three,

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Speaker 1: and the ESA had depended in part on those companies

393
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Speaker 1: paying to be part of the E three event and

394
00:24:53,280 --> 00:24:57,320
Speaker 1: to drive attendance to E three. So money was effectively

395
00:24:57,640 --> 00:25:01,199
Speaker 1: leaving E three because these big companies were starting to

396
00:25:01,240 --> 00:25:04,120
Speaker 1: pull out and hold their own events. So the ESA

397
00:25:04,280 --> 00:25:06,880
Speaker 1: had to come up with a new strategy, which might

398
00:25:06,920 --> 00:25:09,520
Speaker 1: be one reason they chose to sell tickets. Those tickets

399
00:25:09,560 --> 00:25:12,480
Speaker 1: weren't cheap, by the way. In twenty seventeen they went

400
00:25:12,520 --> 00:25:15,040
Speaker 1: for two hundred and fifty bucks a pop, though I

401
00:25:15,119 --> 00:25:18,840
Speaker 1: think the Early Bird Special dropped that down to a

402
00:25:19,000 --> 00:25:22,439
Speaker 1: cheap one hundred and fifty right, still princely sum if

403
00:25:22,480 --> 00:25:24,720
Speaker 1: you ask me one hundred and fifty bucks so that

404
00:25:24,800 --> 00:25:28,240
Speaker 1: you can stand in line for ninety five percent of

405
00:25:28,240 --> 00:25:29,600
Speaker 1: the time and the other five percent of the time

406
00:25:29,600 --> 00:25:32,320
Speaker 1: you're actually playing games. That's a steep price, if you

407
00:25:32,359 --> 00:25:36,879
Speaker 1: ask me now. The ESA would repeat this strategy in

408
00:25:36,920 --> 00:25:41,719
Speaker 1: twenty eighteen and twenty nineteen, and E three grew in size,

409
00:25:41,720 --> 00:25:44,240
Speaker 1: but each year there were more articles and think pieces

410
00:25:44,280 --> 00:25:47,439
Speaker 1: about whether or not E three was even relevant for

411
00:25:47,520 --> 00:25:50,840
Speaker 1: the video game industry anymore. More and more companies were

412
00:25:50,840 --> 00:25:54,560
Speaker 1: pulling out, and there were more and more complaints about

413
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Speaker 1: the event being crowded with people who were part of

414
00:25:57,200 --> 00:25:59,400
Speaker 1: the general public and not actually part of the industry

415
00:25:59,440 --> 00:26:02,280
Speaker 1: or the media. Some people thought that perhaps E three

416
00:26:02,280 --> 00:26:06,040
Speaker 1: would transition from an industry event to a pure public

417
00:26:06,160 --> 00:26:10,159
Speaker 1: facing one that rather than being geared toward pairing publishers

418
00:26:10,160 --> 00:26:13,880
Speaker 1: with retailers, which really again was not a consideration anymore

419
00:26:13,920 --> 00:26:17,320
Speaker 1: in the era of digital delivery, and from being a

420
00:26:17,480 --> 00:26:21,359
Speaker 1: media event, which it kind of still was, but it

421
00:26:21,480 --> 00:26:23,960
Speaker 1: was a very different kind of experience at this point,

422
00:26:24,600 --> 00:26:28,120
Speaker 1: and then changed to be something where people can come

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00:26:28,160 --> 00:26:30,159
Speaker 1: in and get a chance to play some games that

424
00:26:30,160 --> 00:26:32,720
Speaker 1: are in development and have one on one face time

425
00:26:32,760 --> 00:26:35,960
Speaker 1: with people who are in the industry or whatever, but

426
00:26:36,280 --> 00:26:40,119
Speaker 1: it specifically being for that purpose, so it would be

427
00:26:40,119 --> 00:26:43,879
Speaker 1: a completely retooled approach at that point, but they hadn't

428
00:26:43,880 --> 00:26:47,000
Speaker 1: done that yet, and meanwhile, the ESA had some crises

429
00:26:47,040 --> 00:26:51,080
Speaker 1: on its hands. So one was when the agent, the

430
00:26:51,560 --> 00:26:58,359
Speaker 1: ESA's president second president ever, Mike Gallagher, left the organization,

431
00:26:58,920 --> 00:27:02,359
Speaker 1: so he had led the ESA since two thousand and seven.

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Speaker 1: He took over for Doug Lowenstein, who had been the

433
00:27:06,960 --> 00:27:10,719
Speaker 1: founder of ESA and the first president of the organization.

434
00:27:11,480 --> 00:27:15,159
Speaker 1: So Gallagher saw E three go from trying to be

435
00:27:15,200 --> 00:27:18,640
Speaker 1: all business to pivoting back to a slightly scaled down

436
00:27:18,640 --> 00:27:22,560
Speaker 1: but still rather extravagant version of the Crazy Days. He

437
00:27:22,640 --> 00:27:25,440
Speaker 1: also led the organization as E three offered tickets to

438
00:27:25,480 --> 00:27:28,000
Speaker 1: the public. But then the curtain got pulled back a

439
00:27:28,040 --> 00:27:31,560
Speaker 1: little bit and things started to look really awful behind

440
00:27:31,560 --> 00:27:35,920
Speaker 1: the scenes. So Gallagher would step down from his position

441
00:27:36,040 --> 00:27:39,399
Speaker 1: toward the end of twenty eighteen, and in the process

442
00:27:39,760 --> 00:27:42,439
Speaker 1: it got a lot of attention from the media. There

443
00:27:42,440 --> 00:27:47,159
Speaker 1: were allegations that Gallagher had fostered a toxic work environment

444
00:27:47,320 --> 00:27:51,720
Speaker 1: at the ESA, and that he was pitting employees against

445
00:27:51,720 --> 00:27:55,520
Speaker 1: one another to curry favor with the boss. And his

446
00:27:56,400 --> 00:27:59,680
Speaker 1: thought was that by making people work against each other

447
00:27:59,720 --> 00:28:03,200
Speaker 1: and come against each other, you would get the best work, right,

448
00:28:03,359 --> 00:28:06,600
Speaker 1: But in the process you're destroying your staff. And it

449
00:28:06,640 --> 00:28:09,680
Speaker 1: did sound like a lot of the accounts, which weren't

450
00:28:09,680 --> 00:28:13,360
Speaker 1: from Gallagher himself, they were from you know, mostly anonymous sources.

451
00:28:13,960 --> 00:28:18,040
Speaker 1: We're saying that Gallagher, or at least implying that Gallagher

452
00:28:18,119 --> 00:28:20,560
Speaker 1: was on sort of a power trip, that it was

453
00:28:20,640 --> 00:28:26,439
Speaker 1: this kind of sadistic glee of making people, you know,

454
00:28:26,720 --> 00:28:30,720
Speaker 1: undercut one another in order to get ahead. There's a

455
00:28:30,720 --> 00:28:32,840
Speaker 1: piece of variety about this that makes it sound like

456
00:28:32,920 --> 00:28:35,760
Speaker 1: working at the ESA during this time would be a

457
00:28:35,760 --> 00:28:37,879
Speaker 1: bit like if you were leading one of the minor

458
00:28:37,960 --> 00:28:40,600
Speaker 1: houses in Game of Thrones. You're really just trying to

459
00:28:40,840 --> 00:28:43,840
Speaker 1: hold things together in your team without getting the attention

460
00:28:43,880 --> 00:28:46,120
Speaker 1: of one of the more power hungry houses out there,

461
00:28:46,560 --> 00:28:51,000
Speaker 1: and winter is coming. There were also accusations that Gallagher

462
00:28:51,080 --> 00:28:54,640
Speaker 1: was showing favoritism toward a particular employee. I couldn't find

463
00:28:54,640 --> 00:28:57,000
Speaker 1: a lot of details about this, but it did sound

464
00:28:57,080 --> 00:29:00,760
Speaker 1: like one person was being held out for special favor

465
00:29:00,840 --> 00:29:03,960
Speaker 1: while everyone else was suffering, and that made things worse.

466
00:29:04,800 --> 00:29:10,840
Speaker 1: So apparently Gallagher left the ESA after the board for

467
00:29:10,960 --> 00:29:14,280
Speaker 1: the ESA decided to hold some one on one interviews

468
00:29:14,360 --> 00:29:17,560
Speaker 1: with various staff members to investigate some of the complaints

469
00:29:18,080 --> 00:29:23,400
Speaker 1: that were rising up through the organization. So Gallagher tindered

470
00:29:23,480 --> 00:29:27,320
Speaker 1: his resignation. I don't know if he was asked to resign,

471
00:29:27,400 --> 00:29:30,200
Speaker 1: but if he wasn't, I'm sure that was just a

472
00:29:30,200 --> 00:29:34,280
Speaker 1: matter of time because from what I understand, it was

473
00:29:34,520 --> 00:29:38,160
Speaker 1: untenable for him to maintain his position. The board was

474
00:29:38,240 --> 00:29:41,400
Speaker 1: just not going to allow it. Now I've never met Gallagher.

475
00:29:41,640 --> 00:29:44,360
Speaker 1: I haven't taught to anyone who did work for Gallagher.

476
00:29:44,360 --> 00:29:46,880
Speaker 1: At least if I have, we didn't talk about this,

477
00:29:47,400 --> 00:29:50,600
Speaker 1: so I don't have first or secondhand information about this,

478
00:29:50,760 --> 00:29:55,080
Speaker 1: but from everything I've read, it does sound like it

479
00:29:55,200 --> 00:30:02,120
Speaker 1: was miserable to work under his direction. His departure, however,

480
00:30:02,240 --> 00:30:05,320
Speaker 1: meant that the ESA suddenly was without a leader or

481
00:30:05,400 --> 00:30:08,880
Speaker 1: a coherent vision of where to move forward. And apparently

482
00:30:09,360 --> 00:30:13,320
Speaker 1: about half of the leadership in the ESA either quit

483
00:30:13,480 --> 00:30:17,080
Speaker 1: or was fired in the six months following Gallagher's departure,

484
00:30:17,440 --> 00:30:21,080
Speaker 1: which is a big ol' yikes. Now we're going to

485
00:30:21,160 --> 00:30:24,040
Speaker 1: take another break. When we come back. E three still

486
00:30:24,080 --> 00:30:27,640
Speaker 1: isn't dead even yet at this point in our story.

487
00:30:28,000 --> 00:30:41,160
Speaker 1: We will talk more about what happened after these messages. Okay,

488
00:30:41,200 --> 00:30:46,400
Speaker 1: we're back. So, while the Gallagher fallout was going on

489
00:30:46,640 --> 00:30:49,520
Speaker 1: at the ESA, there still needed to be an E

490
00:30:49,640 --> 00:30:53,520
Speaker 1: three in twenty nineteen, but that event would have its

491
00:30:53,560 --> 00:30:56,520
Speaker 1: own crisis, this time in the form of a data leak.

492
00:30:57,200 --> 00:31:02,600
Speaker 1: So it was discovered that the EAA had accidentally linked

493
00:31:02,680 --> 00:31:08,280
Speaker 1: a database containing attendee information through the ESA website itself.

494
00:31:08,280 --> 00:31:12,080
Speaker 1: In other words, it was possible to access this database

495
00:31:12,160 --> 00:31:17,320
Speaker 1: of attendee info, which held like two thousand entries of

496
00:31:17,440 --> 00:31:20,640
Speaker 1: personal information, including things like addresses and phone numbers and

497
00:31:20,680 --> 00:31:25,520
Speaker 1: email of all these different attendees. So anyone who was

498
00:31:25,560 --> 00:31:29,560
Speaker 1: able to go to ESA's website could potentially find themselves

499
00:31:29,600 --> 00:31:34,120
Speaker 1: accessing a database with all this private information. And we're

500
00:31:34,120 --> 00:31:36,800
Speaker 1: talking about some high profile folks who are on that list,

501
00:31:36,840 --> 00:31:42,600
Speaker 1: like prominent social media influencers and really important games journalists.

502
00:31:42,640 --> 00:31:45,040
Speaker 1: And you also have to remember this is twenty nineteen,

503
00:31:45,640 --> 00:31:48,959
Speaker 1: so just a few years earlier, twenty fourteen, twenty fifteen,

504
00:31:49,000 --> 00:31:55,040
Speaker 1: there was gamer Gate, a truly terrible, terrible period of

505
00:31:55,240 --> 00:31:59,120
Speaker 1: harassment and abuse that was done in the name of

506
00:31:59,760 --> 00:32:02,800
Speaker 1: calling out for better video games journalism, but that was

507
00:32:02,880 --> 00:32:06,960
Speaker 1: really more of a smoke screen and was mostly about

508
00:32:07,000 --> 00:32:11,520
Speaker 1: intimidating people you didn't like and harassing them in terrible ways.

509
00:32:11,720 --> 00:32:13,880
Speaker 1: So in the wake of that, the fact that that

510
00:32:13,920 --> 00:32:16,400
Speaker 1: had just happened a few years earlier, and in the

511
00:32:16,560 --> 00:32:19,520
Speaker 1: very industry that you are you are in as an

512
00:32:19,600 --> 00:32:23,680
Speaker 1: influencer or video game journalist, obviously finding out that your

513
00:32:23,920 --> 00:32:28,520
Speaker 1: private information was publicly accessible is not going to fly

514
00:32:28,640 --> 00:32:33,120
Speaker 1: well for you. You're going to have some opinions about the

515
00:32:33,280 --> 00:32:36,600
Speaker 1: organization that allowed that to happen. Now, the ESA did

516
00:32:36,640 --> 00:32:39,720
Speaker 1: remove access to the data. Actually I had to do

517
00:32:39,760 --> 00:32:42,240
Speaker 1: it twice because it turned out there was another way

518
00:32:42,280 --> 00:32:46,080
Speaker 1: to access even more information. But obviously the damage had

519
00:32:46,120 --> 00:32:48,920
Speaker 1: been done. You know, information had already leaked out. A

520
00:32:48,920 --> 00:32:52,200
Speaker 1: lot of people in that space reported that they were

521
00:32:52,240 --> 00:32:55,640
Speaker 1: on the receiving end of harassing phone calls and things

522
00:32:55,680 --> 00:33:00,080
Speaker 1: of that nature. And worse, So, now media and influencer

523
00:33:00,600 --> 00:33:05,280
Speaker 1: were being wary of E three. They got burned by

524
00:33:05,320 --> 00:33:08,560
Speaker 1: the ESA. So you had these big companies that were

525
00:33:08,560 --> 00:33:10,560
Speaker 1: all pulling out of E three in favor of holding

526
00:33:10,600 --> 00:33:15,040
Speaker 1: their own separate events or joining together on an alternative

527
00:33:15,080 --> 00:33:17,920
Speaker 1: event like Summer Game Fest. And then you had the

528
00:33:18,000 --> 00:33:22,680
Speaker 1: media second guessing their involvement because you know, getting docsed sucks.

529
00:33:23,760 --> 00:33:27,840
Speaker 1: And then twenty twenty happened, and y'all all remember that, right,

530
00:33:27,880 --> 00:33:30,920
Speaker 1: I mean, the pandemic hit and then beginning with south

531
00:33:30,960 --> 00:33:34,400
Speaker 1: By Southwest and then stretching throughout the year, we saw

532
00:33:34,600 --> 00:33:38,920
Speaker 1: in person conferences cancel one after another, including E three.

533
00:33:39,480 --> 00:33:42,920
Speaker 1: So this situation really drove home to video game companies

534
00:33:43,480 --> 00:33:46,800
Speaker 1: that having your own event, even if it's just digital

535
00:33:46,960 --> 00:33:49,840
Speaker 1: and a virtual event it's not held in person. It

536
00:33:49,960 --> 00:33:52,959
Speaker 1: is important if you want to make announcements, and depending

537
00:33:53,000 --> 00:33:55,880
Speaker 1: upon a third party is always risky because you could

538
00:33:55,880 --> 00:33:58,600
Speaker 1: find yourself without a platform through no fault of your own.

539
00:33:58,600 --> 00:34:01,960
Speaker 1: This is also why you know I always tell content

540
00:34:02,040 --> 00:34:06,400
Speaker 1: creators that it's good to diversify where your content goes,

541
00:34:06,880 --> 00:34:10,560
Speaker 1: because if you count on just one place where your

542
00:34:10,600 --> 00:34:14,520
Speaker 1: content lives, if something happens to that place, if you

543
00:34:14,520 --> 00:34:18,319
Speaker 1: don't control that place and they make a change, you

544
00:34:18,560 --> 00:34:21,719
Speaker 1: end up suffering from that. We see it a time

545
00:34:21,760 --> 00:34:25,879
Speaker 1: and again on YouTube. Whenever YouTube changes their monetization policies,

546
00:34:26,560 --> 00:34:30,600
Speaker 1: Like every time that happens, lots of people end up

547
00:34:30,640 --> 00:34:35,680
Speaker 1: suffering consequences. And one way to try to mitigate that

548
00:34:36,200 --> 00:34:38,080
Speaker 1: is to make sure you're not putting all your eggs

549
00:34:38,080 --> 00:34:41,839
Speaker 1: in one basket. Now, the pandemic forced companies to come

550
00:34:41,880 --> 00:34:44,319
Speaker 1: up with their own strategies, and that would mean there'd

551
00:34:44,320 --> 00:34:46,600
Speaker 1: be even less of a reason to depend upon E

552
00:34:46,719 --> 00:34:49,160
Speaker 1: three itself. Twenty twenty was actually when we did get

553
00:34:49,160 --> 00:34:52,480
Speaker 1: the first Summer Game Fest, when Jeff Keeley put that together,

554
00:34:53,120 --> 00:34:56,040
Speaker 1: because there was this void since E three wasn't happening.

555
00:34:56,920 --> 00:34:59,680
Speaker 1: Plus at the same time we were seeing tons of

556
00:34:59,680 --> 00:35:03,719
Speaker 1: concer solid in the video game space. Companies were gobbling

557
00:35:03,760 --> 00:35:08,320
Speaker 1: one another up, with Microsoft rushing bullishly forward and leading

558
00:35:08,320 --> 00:35:10,479
Speaker 1: the pack. And of course we're still waiting to find

559
00:35:10,480 --> 00:35:13,360
Speaker 1: out what's going to happen with Microsoft's planned acquisition of

560
00:35:13,400 --> 00:35:16,600
Speaker 1: Activision Blizzard. But that's a great example of there were

561
00:35:16,640 --> 00:35:22,120
Speaker 1: actually fewer big parties involved because there was all this consolidation,

562
00:35:22,920 --> 00:35:26,200
Speaker 1: and it meant that there were fewer companies that needed

563
00:35:26,239 --> 00:35:28,279
Speaker 1: to rely on an event, and an event like E

564
00:35:28,400 --> 00:35:31,160
Speaker 1: three because they were part of a bigger organization that

565
00:35:31,160 --> 00:35:33,920
Speaker 1: could hold its own event. Now, don't get me wrong,

566
00:35:34,400 --> 00:35:37,880
Speaker 1: there are still smaller video game companies. They still do exist,

567
00:35:37,960 --> 00:35:40,960
Speaker 1: and they would still benefit from being elevated on a

568
00:35:41,040 --> 00:35:44,560
Speaker 1: larger platform. But a lot of the mid sized companies

569
00:35:44,560 --> 00:35:47,760
Speaker 1: found themselves absorbed by the larger ones and the playing

570
00:35:47,760 --> 00:35:51,120
Speaker 1: field became more sparse. So there was no E three

571
00:35:51,160 --> 00:35:54,600
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty at all, either in person or digital.

572
00:35:55,239 --> 00:35:58,160
Speaker 1: The ESA scrambled to figure out a contingency plan for

573
00:35:58,200 --> 00:36:01,080
Speaker 1: twenty twenty one, and what came up with was a

574
00:36:01,160 --> 00:36:04,800
Speaker 1: digital only presentation, so there would be no in person

575
00:36:04,960 --> 00:36:08,759
Speaker 1: gathering for twenty twenty one, And they also said E

576
00:36:08,840 --> 00:36:14,280
Speaker 1: three that year stood for Electronic Entertainment Experience rather than EXPO,

577
00:36:14,520 --> 00:36:16,400
Speaker 1: because it's not much of an expo if it just

578
00:36:16,440 --> 00:36:20,880
Speaker 1: involves watching a pre recorded digital presentation. The ESA hoped

579
00:36:21,280 --> 00:36:24,640
Speaker 1: to bring E three back in person for twenty twenty two,

580
00:36:25,160 --> 00:36:29,239
Speaker 1: but COVID still presented a considerable challenge. The ESA made

581
00:36:29,239 --> 00:36:32,560
Speaker 1: the call in early twenty twenty two to cancel the

582
00:36:32,600 --> 00:36:36,040
Speaker 1: in person event, but they said, quote due to the

583
00:36:36,080 --> 00:36:40,280
Speaker 1: ongoing health risks surrounding COVID nineteen and its potential impact

584
00:36:40,320 --> 00:36:43,719
Speaker 1: on the safety of exhibitors and attendees, E three will

585
00:36:43,719 --> 00:36:47,560
Speaker 1: not be held in person in twenty twenty two end quote.

586
00:36:47,880 --> 00:36:50,920
Speaker 1: But they stressed that this was not the end of

587
00:36:50,960 --> 00:36:54,880
Speaker 1: E three itself, and that quote, we remain incredibly excited

588
00:36:54,960 --> 00:36:57,160
Speaker 1: about the future of E three and look forward to

589
00:36:57,160 --> 00:37:01,160
Speaker 1: announcing more details soon end quote. This is where I

590
00:37:01,160 --> 00:37:05,160
Speaker 1: would insert Ron Howard's narrator voice from Arrested Development, and

591
00:37:05,200 --> 00:37:08,359
Speaker 1: I would have him say they would not announce more

592
00:37:08,400 --> 00:37:12,920
Speaker 1: details soon now. In early twenty twenty two, there was

593
00:37:12,960 --> 00:37:15,720
Speaker 1: still hope that the ESA would try to do something

594
00:37:15,760 --> 00:37:19,080
Speaker 1: like it had the year before with a digital only experience,

595
00:37:19,719 --> 00:37:23,279
Speaker 1: but by late March twenty twenty two, the ESA made

596
00:37:23,320 --> 00:37:25,520
Speaker 1: it clear that there would be no event at all,

597
00:37:25,760 --> 00:37:30,400
Speaker 1: digital or otherwise Will Powers, a PR rep for the company,

598
00:37:30,480 --> 00:37:33,560
Speaker 1: Razor broke this news on Twitter and revealed that he

599
00:37:33,600 --> 00:37:37,120
Speaker 1: had received an email that confirmed E three had been

600
00:37:37,320 --> 00:37:41,280
Speaker 1: totally canceled for twenty twenty two. The ESA later released

601
00:37:41,320 --> 00:37:44,680
Speaker 1: a statement that said quote, we will devote all our

602
00:37:44,920 --> 00:37:49,760
Speaker 1: energy and resources to delivering a revitalized physical and digital

603
00:37:49,840 --> 00:37:53,719
Speaker 1: E three experience next summer. Whether enjoyed from the show

604
00:37:53,800 --> 00:37:57,840
Speaker 1: floor or your favorite devices, the twenty twenty three showcase

605
00:37:58,000 --> 00:38:02,160
Speaker 1: will bring the community, media and industry back together in

606
00:38:02,200 --> 00:38:06,600
Speaker 1: an all new format and interactive experience. We look forward

607
00:38:06,600 --> 00:38:09,359
Speaker 1: to presenting E three to fans around the world live

608
00:38:09,360 --> 00:38:13,480
Speaker 1: from Los Angeles in twenty twenty three. End quote. I

609
00:38:13,520 --> 00:38:16,800
Speaker 1: need another Ron Howard bit for this too. He should

610
00:38:16,800 --> 00:38:20,440
Speaker 1: say something like they did not do that, or you

611
00:38:20,480 --> 00:38:25,720
Speaker 1: know something that's funnier than that. Anyway. Yeah, the messaging

612
00:38:25,760 --> 00:38:28,239
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty one was that there would be an

613
00:38:28,239 --> 00:38:31,120
Speaker 1: in person event again in twenty twenty two. Then the

614
00:38:31,360 --> 00:38:33,480
Speaker 1: ESA had to reverse course on that. They said their

615
00:38:33,520 --> 00:38:36,719
Speaker 1: concern was for COVID. Now, I think that's a legitimate

616
00:38:36,719 --> 00:38:40,839
Speaker 1: thing to be concerned about. However, I also don't think

617
00:38:40,840 --> 00:38:44,120
Speaker 1: that's the real reason they canceled in twenty twenty two.

618
00:38:44,320 --> 00:38:48,840
Speaker 1: I suspect the real reason was that the ESA was

619
00:38:48,840 --> 00:38:53,240
Speaker 1: finding it challenging to secure exhibitors for the event, either

620
00:38:53,719 --> 00:38:58,360
Speaker 1: in reality or virtually, that more and more companies were like, no,

621
00:38:58,680 --> 00:39:01,279
Speaker 1: I think we're good, and that it just got to

622
00:39:01,320 --> 00:39:05,480
Speaker 1: a point where there was so few big names on

623
00:39:05,560 --> 00:39:10,520
Speaker 1: the list that there was no way to hold an event.

624
00:39:10,600 --> 00:39:14,680
Speaker 1: There were not enough attractions to hold an event, and

625
00:39:14,719 --> 00:39:17,960
Speaker 1: that's why it got canceled. That's what I believe. But

626
00:39:18,080 --> 00:39:21,239
Speaker 1: you also still had ESA saying stay tuned, we have

627
00:39:21,360 --> 00:39:24,520
Speaker 1: more to say, and then they went radio silent for months.

628
00:39:25,360 --> 00:39:28,000
Speaker 1: Then when they did speak, they said, okay, well, now

629
00:39:28,040 --> 00:39:29,920
Speaker 1: there's no event at all in twenty twenty two, but

630
00:39:30,000 --> 00:39:32,640
Speaker 1: twenty twenty three is going to be bigger and better

631
00:39:32,680 --> 00:39:37,200
Speaker 1: than ever. And then this past March we got confirmation

632
00:39:37,280 --> 00:39:39,720
Speaker 1: that there would be no E three this year either,

633
00:39:40,040 --> 00:39:42,920
Speaker 1: which I think a lot of people already suspected, but

634
00:39:43,040 --> 00:39:46,000
Speaker 1: then it was confirmed by the end of March this year.

635
00:39:46,280 --> 00:39:49,600
Speaker 1: So what happened, Well, I think the major reason for

636
00:39:49,719 --> 00:39:53,800
Speaker 1: E three's cancelation is a lack of participation among big

637
00:39:53,880 --> 00:39:58,080
Speaker 1: video game companies too. Many have forged their own strategies,

638
00:39:58,360 --> 00:40:00,800
Speaker 1: or they've signed on with Jeff Keeley and the Summer

639
00:40:00,840 --> 00:40:05,760
Speaker 1: Game Festival to promote upcoming video game titles. They've outgrown

640
00:40:06,080 --> 00:40:09,360
Speaker 1: the usefulness of E three. It represents too small of

641
00:40:09,400 --> 00:40:14,400
Speaker 1: a return on investment. Many companies declined the invitation to

642
00:40:14,520 --> 00:40:18,560
Speaker 1: participate in E three. A lot of them agreed to

643
00:40:18,640 --> 00:40:22,560
Speaker 1: initially and then chose to pull out, And that lack

644
00:40:22,600 --> 00:40:26,480
Speaker 1: of commitment, I think meant that E three could not

645
00:40:26,600 --> 00:40:30,640
Speaker 1: be anything other than a disaster. So rather then throw

646
00:40:30,680 --> 00:40:33,600
Speaker 1: an event that would be held up to ridicule and disappointment,

647
00:40:33,920 --> 00:40:37,680
Speaker 1: the ESA chose to cancel it outright, and I think

648
00:40:38,239 --> 00:40:42,440
Speaker 1: that's probably the better move of the two. It's better

649
00:40:42,520 --> 00:40:45,839
Speaker 1: to go ahead and cancel it completely than to say,

650
00:40:45,880 --> 00:40:48,719
Speaker 1: here are the three video game companies that you've never

651
00:40:48,760 --> 00:40:52,000
Speaker 1: heard of and games that you may or may not

652
00:40:52,040 --> 00:40:54,560
Speaker 1: be interested in, and then that's all we have to

653
00:40:54,600 --> 00:40:57,520
Speaker 1: show you. But does that mean E three is gone

654
00:40:57,600 --> 00:41:02,440
Speaker 1: for good? I I'm not entirely sure. I think the

655
00:41:03,239 --> 00:41:06,520
Speaker 1: old format of E three is dead. I don't think

656
00:41:06,520 --> 00:41:09,200
Speaker 1: it's coming back. I don't think it can. I don't

657
00:41:09,200 --> 00:41:11,440
Speaker 1: think there's a purpose for it, and if there's no

658
00:41:11,520 --> 00:41:14,040
Speaker 1: purpose for it, then no one's going to pay for it.

659
00:41:14,719 --> 00:41:18,719
Speaker 1: So the ESA tried to hype up twenty twenty two

660
00:41:18,760 --> 00:41:21,560
Speaker 1: before canceling, and then punted the ball down the field

661
00:41:21,600 --> 00:41:25,600
Speaker 1: to hype up twenty twenty three before canceling. But they've

662
00:41:25,680 --> 00:41:28,759
Speaker 1: learned their lesson. They are not hyping up twenty twenty four,

663
00:41:28,880 --> 00:41:31,920
Speaker 1: so at least there's that right. The ESA no longer

664
00:41:31,960 --> 00:41:38,320
Speaker 1: seems to be actively denying reality, so instead Stanley Pierre Luis,

665
00:41:38,320 --> 00:41:42,400
Speaker 1: who is the president of the ESA now told Games

666
00:41:42,480 --> 00:41:46,920
Speaker 1: Industry Dot biz quote, We're committed to providing an industry

667
00:41:46,960 --> 00:41:50,160
Speaker 1: platform for marketing and convening, but we want to make

668
00:41:50,200 --> 00:41:53,439
Speaker 1: sure we find that right balance that meets the needs

669
00:41:53,480 --> 00:41:56,279
Speaker 1: of the industry. We're certainly going to be listening and

670
00:41:56,440 --> 00:42:00,040
Speaker 1: ensuring whatever we want to offer meets those needs, and

671
00:42:00,080 --> 00:42:03,640
Speaker 1: at that time we will have more news to share.

672
00:42:04,000 --> 00:42:07,480
Speaker 1: End quote. That is way more reserved than what we

673
00:42:07,840 --> 00:42:10,640
Speaker 1: have heard the last couple of years, and it could

674
00:42:10,640 --> 00:42:13,520
Speaker 1: indicate that the ESA is grappling with how to either

675
00:42:13,719 --> 00:42:15,680
Speaker 1: pull the plug on E three in a way that

676
00:42:15,920 --> 00:42:20,160
Speaker 1: isn't disastrous, or to reinvent the expo entirely to become

677
00:42:20,239 --> 00:42:23,680
Speaker 1: something new. I personally think it would be possible to

678
00:42:23,760 --> 00:42:27,040
Speaker 1: make a public facing event and to have it be

679
00:42:27,080 --> 00:42:29,719
Speaker 1: a satisfying experience. I mean, PAX has been doing that

680
00:42:29,800 --> 00:42:32,959
Speaker 1: for ages and has had attendance that was at least

681
00:42:32,960 --> 00:42:36,880
Speaker 1: as big as E three's most popular years. It's just

682
00:42:36,960 --> 00:42:38,960
Speaker 1: that it has to be run in a way that

683
00:42:39,120 --> 00:42:43,120
Speaker 1: is fundamentally different from a trade show. I think that's

684
00:42:43,120 --> 00:42:45,120
Speaker 1: where a big part of the problem was for the

685
00:42:45,200 --> 00:42:49,759
Speaker 1: last few E threes, because slapping on a public aspect

686
00:42:49,800 --> 00:42:53,919
Speaker 1: to what had been an industry trade show is kind

687
00:42:53,920 --> 00:42:57,960
Speaker 1: of like putting ice hockey players in full gear on

688
00:42:58,000 --> 00:43:00,719
Speaker 1: a beach volleyball court and telling them to play. It's

689
00:43:00,920 --> 00:43:05,560
Speaker 1: just not set up correctly. I think the pandemic proved

690
00:43:05,800 --> 00:43:09,239
Speaker 1: to video game companies what they already suspected that they

691
00:43:09,239 --> 00:43:12,839
Speaker 1: could survive or even thrive without depending on E three

692
00:43:12,880 --> 00:43:16,160
Speaker 1: at all. Gone are the days when video game coverage

693
00:43:16,200 --> 00:43:19,040
Speaker 1: was limited to magazines like Nintendo Power, and you had

694
00:43:19,040 --> 00:43:21,400
Speaker 1: to set yourself on fire if you wanted to be noticed.

695
00:43:21,960 --> 00:43:25,640
Speaker 1: The Internet makes it possible to reach a global audience

696
00:43:25,760 --> 00:43:30,319
Speaker 1: without competitors stealing your thunder. It's kind of ridiculous to say, hey,

697
00:43:30,760 --> 00:43:33,560
Speaker 1: why aren't you spending millions of dollars to participate in

698
00:43:33,600 --> 00:43:36,440
Speaker 1: this event that you don't really need Because that question

699
00:43:36,920 --> 00:43:40,959
Speaker 1: contains the answer inside it. That does raise the question

700
00:43:41,040 --> 00:43:44,800
Speaker 1: of how the ESA will move forward. It still provides

701
00:43:44,840 --> 00:43:48,279
Speaker 1: important services when it comes to the ESRB and also

702
00:43:48,400 --> 00:43:52,120
Speaker 1: to representing the industry as a whole so that politicians don't,

703
00:43:52,160 --> 00:43:56,080
Speaker 1: you know, blame video games for the proliferation of violence

704
00:43:56,200 --> 00:43:59,000
Speaker 1: rather than say how easy it is to buy firearms

705
00:43:59,000 --> 00:44:02,840
Speaker 1: and ammunition in this kind. The ESA does draw money

706
00:44:02,920 --> 00:44:05,799
Speaker 1: from dues, but E three had been a major source

707
00:44:05,840 --> 00:44:07,960
Speaker 1: of funding in the past, so it will be interesting

708
00:44:08,360 --> 00:44:12,040
Speaker 1: to see where the ESA goes from here. As for

709
00:44:12,480 --> 00:44:15,920
Speaker 1: E three, I'm not gonna say that it'll never be back,

710
00:44:16,560 --> 00:44:18,560
Speaker 1: but again, I don't think it'll be back in the

711
00:44:18,560 --> 00:44:20,880
Speaker 1: way that we're used to. If it comes back, it

712
00:44:20,880 --> 00:44:24,480
Speaker 1: will be drastically different from what it had been in

713
00:44:24,480 --> 00:44:26,359
Speaker 1: the past, and I don't think that's a bad thing.

714
00:44:26,760 --> 00:44:30,279
Speaker 1: I think it's a necessary thing. Maybe some people will

715
00:44:30,320 --> 00:44:33,040
Speaker 1: be sad that they missed out on the debauchery that

716
00:44:33,120 --> 00:44:35,680
Speaker 1: led up to the big change in two thousand and seven,

717
00:44:36,400 --> 00:44:40,440
Speaker 1: I'm personally not because y'all, I mean, that's just not me.

718
00:44:40,960 --> 00:44:43,040
Speaker 1: Some For some of y'all party animals out there, I

719
00:44:43,040 --> 00:44:46,319
Speaker 1: get it, But for boring folks like me, I just

720
00:44:46,360 --> 00:44:50,200
Speaker 1: want to be able to see cool games and find

721
00:44:50,200 --> 00:44:55,040
Speaker 1: out more about them. I don't need crazy parties and stuff.

722
00:44:55,360 --> 00:44:59,040
Speaker 1: But yeah, I think if there are any more future

723
00:44:59,080 --> 00:45:01,879
Speaker 1: E three's, they will be very different from what we've

724
00:45:01,920 --> 00:45:04,640
Speaker 1: seen in the past, and I would not be entirely

725
00:45:04,680 --> 00:45:08,320
Speaker 1: surprised if E three just fades away. It also wouldn't

726
00:45:08,320 --> 00:45:13,080
Speaker 1: surprise me if the essay never really formally pulls the

727
00:45:13,120 --> 00:45:16,719
Speaker 1: plug and just allows it to kind of hang in

728
00:45:16,760 --> 00:45:20,160
Speaker 1: the air as a possibility, because you never want to

729
00:45:20,160 --> 00:45:22,480
Speaker 1: close the door if you don't have to, and I

730
00:45:22,520 --> 00:45:25,919
Speaker 1: think that's entirely possible. We could go five six years

731
00:45:25,920 --> 00:45:29,200
Speaker 1: with no E three and still not have a formal

732
00:45:29,320 --> 00:45:33,840
Speaker 1: statement saying, yeah, that era is over, so we'll just

733
00:45:33,880 --> 00:45:36,200
Speaker 1: have to wait and see. I hope all of you

734
00:45:36,239 --> 00:45:39,520
Speaker 1: are well. If you are interested in games, you should

735
00:45:39,520 --> 00:45:41,640
Speaker 1: look up some of the stuff that was announced on

736
00:45:41,680 --> 00:45:44,520
Speaker 1: Summer Game Fest some of the streams that have come out.

737
00:45:44,640 --> 00:45:49,200
Speaker 1: There were a lot of interesting announcements and unveilings. I'm

738
00:45:49,239 --> 00:45:53,280
Speaker 1: curious to know if any games in particular caught your attention,

739
00:45:54,040 --> 00:45:58,200
Speaker 1: or if you maybe we're left feeling cold. That's possible too.

740
00:45:58,600 --> 00:46:01,200
Speaker 1: I know there have been years where I've seen all

741
00:46:01,200 --> 00:46:04,680
Speaker 1: the game announcements and thought, you know, none of these

742
00:46:04,719 --> 00:46:07,399
Speaker 1: are for me, which is not saying that the games

743
00:46:07,400 --> 00:46:10,040
Speaker 1: are bad, just that the games are for people who

744
00:46:10,120 --> 00:46:14,520
Speaker 1: have different skills and different interests than I do. I

745
00:46:14,520 --> 00:46:18,359
Speaker 1: guess not everything could be Stardo Valley. That's right. I'm

746
00:46:18,400 --> 00:46:22,839
Speaker 1: a hardcore gamer, y'all. All right, that's it. I hope

747
00:46:22,880 --> 00:46:25,240
Speaker 1: you are all well, and I'll talk to you again

748
00:46:26,080 --> 00:46:35,799
Speaker 1: really soon. Tech Stuff is an iHeartRadio production. For more

749
00:46:35,840 --> 00:46:40,600
Speaker 1: podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or

750
00:46:40,600 --> 00:46:46,120
Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite shows,