WEBVTT - Where did E3 go? 0:00:04.440 --> 0:00:12.319 Welcome to Tech Stuff, a production from iHeartRadio. Hey there, 0:00:12.360 --> 0:00:15.920 and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host Jonathan Strickland. 0:00:15.920 --> 0:00:19.560 I'm an executive producer with iHeartRadio. And how the tech 0:00:19.800 --> 0:00:23.000 are you now? In case you're listening to this episode 0:00:23.040 --> 0:00:27.000 from the future, I hope things are going well there. 0:00:27.320 --> 0:00:31.800 It originally published on June twelfth, twenty twenty three. This 0:00:31.880 --> 0:00:35.280 week was supposed to serve as a triumphant return for 0:00:35.360 --> 0:00:38.440 one of the more famous tech conferences here in the 0:00:38.520 --> 0:00:44.320 United States, that of E three aka the Electronic Entertainment Expo. 0:00:44.720 --> 0:00:48.400 At least for most years. It was intended to happen 0:00:48.680 --> 0:00:52.920 from June thirteenth to the sixteenth, but earlier this year, 0:00:53.280 --> 0:00:58.760 the Entertainment Software Association or ESA announced that the event 0:00:58.960 --> 0:01:01.760 was not going to happen after all. Now, folks have 0:01:01.800 --> 0:01:05.559 been predicting the death of E three or a really 0:01:05.600 --> 0:01:07.920 long time now, like more than a decade, for lots 0:01:07.959 --> 0:01:11.399 of different reasons. And in the void left by E three, 0:01:12.160 --> 0:01:15.200 we've seen the rise of the Summer Game Fest held 0:01:15.360 --> 0:01:19.240 by Jeff Keeley. In fact, the twenty twenty three Summer 0:01:19.240 --> 0:01:22.720 Game Fest launched last week, and some game companies are 0:01:22.760 --> 0:01:28.400 still hosting streams showing off upcoming titles today and this week. 0:01:28.760 --> 0:01:32.200 But what the heck happened with E three? What caused 0:01:32.400 --> 0:01:36.399 that event to fall apart? And why were so many 0:01:36.440 --> 0:01:40.640 people not surprised by it? And could it actually be 0:01:40.800 --> 0:01:45.120 gone for good? Now, to answer those questions, we first 0:01:45.160 --> 0:01:48.000 need to remind ourselves about what E three is all 0:01:48.040 --> 0:01:51.960 about and why it exists in the first place. Then 0:01:52.000 --> 0:01:53.800 we can talk about some of the factors that have 0:01:53.880 --> 0:01:58.360 contributed to E three's decline in the industry. So first up, 0:01:58.960 --> 0:02:02.440 let's go back to that organization I had mentioned earlier, 0:02:02.520 --> 0:02:06.800 the EESA. Now, the original name for that organization was 0:02:06.840 --> 0:02:13.520 the Interactive Digital Software Association or IDSSA, which launched in 0:02:13.639 --> 0:02:17.720 nineteen ninety four as a response to an existential threat 0:02:17.760 --> 0:02:22.240 to the video game industry, namely the United States Congress. 0:02:22.919 --> 0:02:28.000 For years, video games had been seen as being relatively simplistic. 0:02:28.240 --> 0:02:33.000 It was a common assumption among certain demographics of the 0:02:33.000 --> 0:02:38.079 population the video games were just toys, they're distractions for children, 0:02:38.320 --> 0:02:42.320 and that games are meant for kids. If you were 0:02:42.400 --> 0:02:45.400 over the age of fifteen and you admitted that you 0:02:45.600 --> 0:02:49.280 liked video games, you'd probably get some curious looks from 0:02:49.320 --> 0:02:52.520 older folks, and they might write you off as being childish. 0:02:53.000 --> 0:02:55.639 And so when it became obvious that video games had 0:02:55.760 --> 0:03:00.880 evolved well beyond pac Man and Cubert, some leaders got 0:03:01.000 --> 0:03:05.040 very concerned, very quickly, mostly because they were still operating 0:03:05.080 --> 0:03:09.360 under this mistaken assumption that all games are just for kids. 0:03:10.080 --> 0:03:14.359 In nineteen ninety two, we got the first Mortal Kombat game. Now, 0:03:14.400 --> 0:03:17.680 that game purposefully pushed the envelope when it came to 0:03:17.760 --> 0:03:22.520 depicting violence on screen, although by today's standards you would 0:03:22.520 --> 0:03:26.280 have to call it almost quaint in comparison, particularly if 0:03:26.360 --> 0:03:30.320 you compare it with more recent Mortal Kombat titles that 0:03:30.400 --> 0:03:34.079 go far, far harder when it comes to graphic violence 0:03:34.120 --> 0:03:38.440 and gore. But the Mortal Kombat, the original Mortal Kombat, 0:03:38.680 --> 0:03:43.600 absolutely horrified some of the more shall we say, reserved 0:03:43.920 --> 0:03:48.080 folks in Congress. And so there was this rising threat 0:03:48.120 --> 0:03:50.800 that the US government was going to create regulations for 0:03:50.880 --> 0:03:54.840 the video game industry and perhaps pass legislation that would 0:03:55.080 --> 0:03:59.680 severely hurt video game companies. To head off that possibility, 0:04:00.320 --> 0:04:05.080 the various major video game companies banded together and they 0:04:05.200 --> 0:04:09.840 formed an independent agency, which at that time was the IDSA, 0:04:10.360 --> 0:04:12.160 and I think it was two thousand and three when 0:04:12.160 --> 0:04:15.480 it would turn into the ESA. Now it would be 0:04:15.560 --> 0:04:19.839 this group's responsibility to represent the industry as a whole 0:04:20.360 --> 0:04:24.080 to lawmakers and to create a ratings system that the 0:04:24.200 --> 0:04:27.800 industry could apply to games, and that way they could 0:04:27.839 --> 0:04:33.920 avoid imperial entanglements, as ben Kenobi would say. To that end, 0:04:34.160 --> 0:04:39.320 the IDSA created the Entertainment Software Ratings Board or ESRB. 0:04:40.120 --> 0:04:43.680 This is kind of like a subcommittee. It's a board 0:04:43.880 --> 0:04:48.440 that evaluates upcoming video game titles and then assigns content 0:04:48.600 --> 0:04:53.240 and age ratings for those games. That way, the moms 0:04:53.279 --> 0:04:55.800 and dads out there won't be shocked when their little 0:04:55.880 --> 0:04:58.720 rugrats bring home a copy of Bayonetta and then they 0:04:58.760 --> 0:05:02.799 see that there's a woman in a latex body suit 0:05:03.040 --> 0:05:06.719 wearing eight inch stiletto heels doing splits all over the 0:05:06.720 --> 0:05:09.160 screen while shooting demons with guns that are strapped to 0:05:09.200 --> 0:05:12.280 our feet. That's, of course, assuming that the moms and 0:05:12.360 --> 0:05:16.000 dads out there actually paying attention to the ratings that 0:05:16.040 --> 0:05:19.600 are on these games, which frequently doesn't happen. But that's 0:05:19.800 --> 0:05:23.960 not the idsa's vault or the ESA's fault. We're talking 0:05:24.279 --> 0:05:28.600 these days. Now, What does this have to do with 0:05:28.720 --> 0:05:32.960 E three. Well. E three actually served a couple of purposes. 0:05:33.640 --> 0:05:36.839 One of those was to generate money that could pay 0:05:36.880 --> 0:05:40.280 the expenses of the ESA in general and the ESRB 0:05:40.520 --> 0:05:45.880 in particular. So about a little it's not quite half 0:05:45.920 --> 0:05:48.479 and half, but about half of the funding would come 0:05:48.520 --> 0:05:52.360 from dues that the various companies in the industry were 0:05:52.400 --> 0:05:55.800 paying to be part of the ESA, and the other 0:05:56.440 --> 0:06:00.160 half or so would be coming from E three, which 0:06:00.160 --> 0:06:03.240 would be this big exhibition and companies would pay to 0:06:03.279 --> 0:06:05.480 be a part of it, and E three would generate 0:06:05.880 --> 0:06:08.240 a lot of the revenue that would support the ESA 0:06:08.480 --> 0:06:11.240 throughout the year. However, that was just one reason for 0:06:11.320 --> 0:06:14.520 E three. The other reason for E three is that 0:06:14.640 --> 0:06:17.679 back in the mid nineties it was challenging for video 0:06:17.760 --> 0:06:22.040 game companies to get publicity. You know, there were magazines 0:06:22.360 --> 0:06:25.880 that covered the video game space, but they had limited 0:06:25.920 --> 0:06:30.400 reach and limited circulation. You could pay to have a 0:06:30.480 --> 0:06:34.719 space at CEES, that's the Consumer Electronics Show, but more 0:06:34.760 --> 0:06:39.120 often than not, video game companies found themselves shuffled off 0:06:39.200 --> 0:06:42.760 to a remote table, sometimes out in the parking lot 0:06:42.839 --> 0:06:45.960 under a tent, rather than being part of the convention 0:06:46.120 --> 0:06:50.359 hall itself. Plus, these companies were competing for attention with 0:06:50.920 --> 0:06:55.200 every other electronics company out there. That meant they were 0:06:55.200 --> 0:06:57.000 spending a lot of money to have a presence at 0:06:57.000 --> 0:07:01.080 an event where they were largely ignored by press and 0:07:01.160 --> 0:07:04.560 the event staff. There was very little return on investment. 0:07:04.640 --> 0:07:08.200 In other words, you felt like you were an outsider, 0:07:08.520 --> 0:07:11.680 even though by the rules you should be just as 0:07:12.200 --> 0:07:16.239 important as any other attendee at the exhibit. Of course, 0:07:16.280 --> 0:07:21.200 cees there's a scale for which you will be judged. 0:07:21.560 --> 0:07:24.320 Then the larger companies are spending way, way, way more 0:07:24.400 --> 0:07:28.480 money to have a very large presence on the floor itself. 0:07:29.360 --> 0:07:34.880 But that gets off track. Creating a separate trade show, 0:07:35.320 --> 0:07:38.320 one that would focus solely on companies in the video 0:07:38.360 --> 0:07:43.400 game space would give developers and publishers and hardware manufacturers 0:07:43.440 --> 0:07:47.320 a spotlight both for the media and to end up 0:07:47.360 --> 0:07:50.160 working with retailers to make sure that their products would 0:07:50.200 --> 0:07:54.520 be sold in stores. They would still have to compete 0:07:54.600 --> 0:07:59.040 with each other to get attention from the media and retailers, 0:07:59.360 --> 0:08:01.960 but it would still be far more focused than a 0:08:02.040 --> 0:08:05.920 general tech event. Now I have done full episodes about 0:08:06.000 --> 0:08:09.720 the history of E three, and a full detailed history 0:08:09.760 --> 0:08:12.680 is a real roller coaster. There were years that were 0:08:12.800 --> 0:08:18.640 legendarily influential and years where folks made some questionable decisions 0:08:18.760 --> 0:08:21.680 in an effort to promote a game, or a company 0:08:22.080 --> 0:08:25.520 or the event itself. And yeah, to go into it 0:08:25.560 --> 0:08:27.560 in detail would be a little repetitive of things have 0:08:27.680 --> 0:08:30.080 already done. But we're going to hit some of the highlights. 0:08:30.920 --> 0:08:34.200 So nineteen ninety five is when the first E three launched, 0:08:34.360 --> 0:08:37.360 and from ninety five to two thousand and six E 0:08:37.480 --> 0:08:40.040 three would grow. There were a couple of setbacks, but 0:08:40.120 --> 0:08:43.480 generally speaking, it grew year over year and became more 0:08:43.520 --> 0:08:47.199 and more extravagant, and as a consequence, it also became 0:08:47.240 --> 0:08:50.520 more and more expensive. Companies were shelling out big bucks 0:08:50.559 --> 0:08:54.760 for elaborate booth spaces. They would staff these booths with 0:08:54.880 --> 0:08:58.400 lots of really attractive people. This would be the era 0:08:58.559 --> 0:09:01.080 of the so called booth bases. These would be women 0:09:01.120 --> 0:09:05.280 who would be hired to wear costumes, often provocative ones, 0:09:05.600 --> 0:09:10.560 and to promote specific games and franchises. Not the most 0:09:10.600 --> 0:09:14.120 progressive of approaches, I have to say. Companies would host 0:09:14.200 --> 0:09:17.400 these huge parties and they would invite industry and media 0:09:17.440 --> 0:09:20.560 to attend them. And this was really before my time 0:09:20.640 --> 0:09:23.679 as a tech podcaster. So I never went to E 0:09:23.760 --> 0:09:27.800 three during this era. I heard about it, and it's 0:09:27.840 --> 0:09:30.240 probably for the best that I never went, because I 0:09:30.280 --> 0:09:34.880 am notoriously boring at parties. I am, I guess decent 0:09:34.920 --> 0:09:38.360 and one on one and small groups, But throw me 0:09:38.400 --> 0:09:41.200 in a party and it's just the worst. You might 0:09:41.240 --> 0:09:44.160 as well have just saved the invite for somebody who's 0:09:44.200 --> 0:09:48.480 more interesting and fun. But anyway, things were getting pretty 0:09:48.600 --> 0:09:52.720 rowdy over at E three and the attendee list was 0:09:52.720 --> 0:09:57.280 starting to include more non traditional media types. So early on, 0:09:57.920 --> 0:09:59.720 the people who were going to E three in the 0:09:59.720 --> 0:10:03.800 media side, they were journalists from like tech publications as 0:10:03.840 --> 0:10:08.599 well as larger media outlets. But as E three matured, 0:10:09.080 --> 0:10:13.080 so too did the web, and this brought a new 0:10:13.200 --> 0:10:17.439 breed of media, the blogger. Now, some of these bloggers 0:10:17.480 --> 0:10:21.679 were former journalists and reporters, and they had that background, 0:10:21.920 --> 0:10:24.880 but a lot of them were, you know, blogs that 0:10:24.920 --> 0:10:27.200 were run by a person who was hard working. They 0:10:27.240 --> 0:10:31.440 were enterprising, they were enthusiastic, but they didn't necessarily have 0:10:31.480 --> 0:10:35.440 that background in journalism or reporting. They were kind of 0:10:35.440 --> 0:10:38.160 a grassroots effort to build up a brand, and it 0:10:38.200 --> 0:10:40.680 was working, and more and more of them were attending 0:10:40.720 --> 0:10:44.240 E three. But that meant that at least among some people, 0:10:44.280 --> 0:10:48.559 there was this perceived decline in professionalism at E three, 0:10:48.679 --> 0:10:50.480 and that it was starting to turn more into a 0:10:50.520 --> 0:10:55.200 party atmosphere and less of a trade show. Worse, some 0:10:55.280 --> 0:10:58.080 of the companies that were exhibiting were starting to feel 0:10:58.120 --> 0:11:00.559 like all these ding dang bloggers were getting in the 0:11:00.600 --> 0:11:03.640 way of interacting with the folks who quote unquote really mattered, 0:11:04.200 --> 0:11:08.480 like the larger press outlets and retailers. So if you're 0:11:08.480 --> 0:11:12.559 spending all your time talking to Jimbob of jim Bob's 0:11:12.559 --> 0:11:15.320 Big Old Games blog, and it means you miss out 0:11:15.320 --> 0:11:17.640 on your chance to chat with Walt Mossberg of the 0:11:17.640 --> 0:11:20.480 Wall Street Journal. So I'm talking about back in the day. 0:11:20.520 --> 0:11:23.320 Mosburg doesn't write for the Journal anymore, but when he did, 0:11:23.960 --> 0:11:27.240 you know you wanted to get some time with him. Well, 0:11:27.320 --> 0:11:28.880 if it turned out that you were spending all your 0:11:28.920 --> 0:11:34.160 time talking with these much smaller media personalities, you would 0:11:34.240 --> 0:11:36.960 end up saying, why are we spending millions of dollars 0:11:37.000 --> 0:11:41.480 to not talk to the people who matter. The ESA, 0:11:41.720 --> 0:11:45.040 sensing that things were possibly starting to go south, made 0:11:45.160 --> 0:11:49.120 a bold decision, which was a decision to be less 0:11:49.360 --> 0:11:53.439 bold ironically, the E three events in two thousand and 0:11:53.520 --> 0:11:57.400 seven and two thousand and eight would be scaled back considerably, 0:11:57.880 --> 0:12:01.200 with the focus reverted to being about the business of 0:12:01.320 --> 0:12:05.199 video games, so it'd be much more reserved and professional 0:12:05.720 --> 0:12:09.560 or boring if you prefer, and the attendees list would 0:12:09.600 --> 0:12:14.760 be restricted accordingly. Suddenly all those bloggers found it impossible 0:12:14.800 --> 0:12:18.880 to attend, their applications would be denied. While E three 0:12:19.559 --> 0:12:23.719 had a couple of hiccups before this change in two 0:12:23.760 --> 0:12:26.600 thousand and seven, I really think it was the two 0:12:26.640 --> 0:12:29.320 thousand and seven in two thousand and eight years for 0:12:29.440 --> 0:12:32.960 E three that started to prompt people to predict E 0:12:33.080 --> 0:12:36.480 three was on the way out there. Like I said, 0:12:36.559 --> 0:12:39.120 had been a couple of hiccups earlier. There were a 0:12:39.160 --> 0:12:41.800 couple of times where E three had to move. In fact, 0:12:41.840 --> 0:12:44.520 it moved to Atlanta, Georgia. I was not in the 0:12:44.520 --> 0:12:47.760 industry at the time, so I didn't attend, despite the 0:12:47.760 --> 0:12:49.960 fact that it was just down the street from me. 0:12:50.600 --> 0:12:53.240 But yeah, it was. It moved to Atlanta, Georgia, and 0:12:53.320 --> 0:12:57.240 attendance plummeted because a lot of people were located out 0:12:57.280 --> 0:12:59.120 west and they didn't want to take the journey all 0:12:59.120 --> 0:13:02.960 the way east to attend E three. So yeah, there 0:13:02.960 --> 0:13:04.840 were a couple of times before two thousand and seven 0:13:04.880 --> 0:13:09.800 where things were a little slow, but generally speaking, up 0:13:09.800 --> 0:13:12.440 to two thousand and seven, E three was just growing 0:13:12.440 --> 0:13:17.600 and growing and growing, and that meant that when the 0:13:17.880 --> 0:13:22.200 ESA decided to cut way way back on the excess 0:13:22.240 --> 0:13:25.960 of E three, it prompted the doom and gloom soothsayers, 0:13:27.120 --> 0:13:31.480 but it wasn't over just yet. We're going to take 0:13:31.480 --> 0:13:33.720 a quick break. When we come back, we'll talk more 0:13:33.960 --> 0:13:48.760 about E three's journey toward cancelation. Okay, before the break, 0:13:48.800 --> 0:13:52.680 we were talking about how the ESA decided to make 0:13:52.720 --> 0:13:55.360 E three more professional in two thousand and seven, two 0:13:55.360 --> 0:13:57.760 thousand and eight, they cut way back on the event. 0:13:58.320 --> 0:14:02.080 They spread the event across multiple locations in Los Angeles, 0:14:02.920 --> 0:14:07.400 they restricted media access to just a couple of outlets, 0:14:08.040 --> 0:14:12.480 and this, like I said, prompted some people to say 0:14:12.480 --> 0:14:14.200 it was the beginning of the end for E three, 0:14:14.559 --> 0:14:16.800 And you could kind of see why. The change meant 0:14:16.800 --> 0:14:20.359 that the media presence at E three was much much smaller, 0:14:20.480 --> 0:14:23.320 and that meant consumers weren't really getting a look at 0:14:23.440 --> 0:14:25.920 upcoming titles the way they had been in just the 0:14:26.360 --> 0:14:30.960 previous couple of years, so consumers weren't really getting excited. 0:14:31.120 --> 0:14:33.840 They didn't have anything to be excited about. They didn't 0:14:33.880 --> 0:14:37.800 have this big event to talk about, and that change 0:14:37.800 --> 0:14:40.320 would then affect the video game companies as well. So 0:14:40.400 --> 0:14:45.320 once again, the essay received pressure from multiple parties, from 0:14:45.520 --> 0:14:50.040 video game companies, from media outlets, from retailers too, to 0:14:50.160 --> 0:14:54.000 change the event. Again, the argument was that the ESA 0:14:54.120 --> 0:14:59.240 had overcorrected in an attempt to inject professionalism in E three. 0:15:00.000 --> 0:15:05.840 Soh the ESA started easing back into more of what 0:15:05.960 --> 0:15:08.400 E three was like before two thousand and seven, and 0:15:08.440 --> 0:15:12.760 this would start in two thousand and nine. The organization 0:15:13.040 --> 0:15:16.720 tried to manage the events growth. They capped attendance. They 0:15:16.760 --> 0:15:19.920 didn't want A three to just explode to a point 0:15:19.920 --> 0:15:23.960 where it was an unmanageable, chaotic mess. But they also 0:15:24.040 --> 0:15:27.720 didn't want it to feel so buttoned down and restrictive, 0:15:28.240 --> 0:15:32.200 so they started to allow some bloggers and podcasters to 0:15:32.280 --> 0:15:35.520 attend as media. That's how I would end up going 0:15:35.840 --> 0:15:37.600 back in the day. In fact, I think my first 0:15:37.600 --> 0:15:41.360 E three was two thousand and nine, although I could 0:15:41.400 --> 0:15:45.880 be wrong about that. I'm really terrible at remembering specific 0:15:45.960 --> 0:15:48.240 dates of things. That I've gone to, but it was 0:15:48.280 --> 0:15:50.400 definitely after the two thousand and seven two thousand and 0:15:50.400 --> 0:15:56.160 eight scaling back session. But the general public still would 0:15:56.200 --> 0:15:59.600 not be part of the E three experience, not yet. However, 0:15:59.680 --> 0:16:02.600 during the time, web technology was reaching a point where, 0:16:02.680 --> 0:16:06.600 at least for some companies, there began to be a 0:16:06.680 --> 0:16:10.840 new question, which was does it even matter if we 0:16:10.960 --> 0:16:16.400 attend E three? Does our participation mean anything now? For 0:16:16.480 --> 0:16:19.960 smaller companies the answer was clearly yes. The independent developers 0:16:20.000 --> 0:16:24.240 out there did not have the massive presence or platform 0:16:24.320 --> 0:16:27.920 from which they could communicate directly to the public. They 0:16:28.000 --> 0:16:31.240 didn't have that kind of space. But for some of 0:16:31.280 --> 0:16:34.800 the really big companies out there in the video game space, 0:16:34.880 --> 0:16:39.960 like EA aka Electronic Arts, there was no reason to 0:16:40.000 --> 0:16:42.240 adhere to the schedule of E three. You could just 0:16:42.360 --> 0:16:44.760 hold your own event, and you could do so on 0:16:44.800 --> 0:16:48.640 your own terms. You could dictate the schedule, you could 0:16:49.000 --> 0:16:51.800 end up making sure you're not competing with anyone else 0:16:51.840 --> 0:16:55.240 who's in your space, and so they opted to do that. 0:16:55.320 --> 0:16:58.520 They pulled out of E three. Now you could see 0:16:58.960 --> 0:17:01.400 how this could have a huge, huge benefit to a 0:17:01.440 --> 0:17:07.680 company like EA if your publicity plans HINGE on E three. Well, 0:17:07.720 --> 0:17:10.360 then you have to get your projects into some sort 0:17:10.400 --> 0:17:14.000 of presentable format by the time that event rolls around, 0:17:14.080 --> 0:17:16.720 and you have no say in the timing of that event. 0:17:16.840 --> 0:17:20.119 Right they've organized it, you know what the deadline is. 0:17:20.720 --> 0:17:24.480 You can't move it, so you have to work according 0:17:24.520 --> 0:17:27.720 to their schedule. That might mean putting together a demo 0:17:27.800 --> 0:17:30.280 that ends up not even being a good representation of 0:17:30.320 --> 0:17:33.199 the end product. You know, there's been that in a 0:17:33.240 --> 0:17:38.240 lot of cases where people have presented cinematics representing a 0:17:38.280 --> 0:17:41.960 game and it turns out the actual game looks drastically 0:17:42.040 --> 0:17:45.399 different when it's in playable form. But that's kind of 0:17:45.440 --> 0:17:47.960 the stuff that would happen when you don't have the 0:17:48.040 --> 0:17:53.119 power to control the event itself. Plus you're still competing 0:17:53.320 --> 0:17:56.840 with all the other companies in the industry at E three, 0:17:57.320 --> 0:18:00.399 so you might be figuratively killing yourself to get a 0:18:00.440 --> 0:18:04.240 really good demo or presentation together, and you still face 0:18:04.240 --> 0:18:06.600 the possibility that not very many people are going to 0:18:06.640 --> 0:18:09.320 see it because they all ended up going to a 0:18:09.359 --> 0:18:14.600 competitor's keynote presentation instead. But if you hold your own event, 0:18:15.080 --> 0:18:17.560 you can schedule it in your own time. You can 0:18:17.600 --> 0:18:21.719 make sure that you're not overlapping with competitors. That guarantees 0:18:21.760 --> 0:18:25.159 more of the spotlight for yourself, and these days video 0:18:25.240 --> 0:18:28.080 games are much more high profile. So back in the 0:18:28.160 --> 0:18:31.520 nineties you might have had to tempt some random reporter 0:18:31.640 --> 0:18:35.080 into your booth just to get them to consider covering 0:18:35.119 --> 0:18:38.760 your project. But by the late two thousands, video games 0:18:38.760 --> 0:18:42.679 have become an undeniably huge business and there was no 0:18:42.800 --> 0:18:47.520 shortage of coverage from mainstream media as well as smaller 0:18:47.560 --> 0:18:51.120 independent outlets. In fact, these days, you can put out 0:18:51.160 --> 0:18:55.000 a pre taped presentation on YouTube and then you can 0:18:55.119 --> 0:18:59.359 just count on numerous YouTubers to do reaction videos to 0:18:59.480 --> 0:19:03.119 your present and that spreads your marketing message further, and 0:19:03.240 --> 0:19:06.280 all without you having to even pay for it. It's 0:19:06.320 --> 0:19:11.359 a totally different world now. I cannot point to a 0:19:11.480 --> 0:19:15.280 single year and say this is when it became clear 0:19:15.600 --> 0:19:18.880 that E three's importance as far as promoting games had 0:19:18.880 --> 0:19:23.000 faded away, with one possible exception, but we'll get there, 0:19:23.040 --> 0:19:26.359 because it was really more of a gradual decline. It 0:19:26.400 --> 0:19:29.919 didn't happen at the same speed for every company I 0:19:29.960 --> 0:19:32.600 did mention. Electronic Arts pulled out fairly early, but it 0:19:32.640 --> 0:19:36.240 wouldn't be the only company others would follow suit. You 0:19:36.320 --> 0:19:39.760 had Nintendo that would withdraw from E three and just 0:19:39.880 --> 0:19:44.000 hold its own Nintendo Direct event. You would have Activisions 0:19:44.040 --> 0:19:50.120 step away. Then more recently, Sony would step away from 0:19:50.160 --> 0:19:53.520 E three entirely to hold its own event. Other video 0:19:53.600 --> 0:19:56.920 game publishers did the same. Some of them became known 0:19:56.960 --> 0:20:00.600 for their own in person events, like Blizzard held BlizzCon, 0:20:01.280 --> 0:20:03.879 and that was a very well known event still is 0:20:03.920 --> 0:20:06.359 a very well known event. So you could say that 0:20:06.400 --> 0:20:10.040 the video game industry had largely outgrown the need for 0:20:10.160 --> 0:20:14.080 E three, at least from the promotional standpoint right. And 0:20:14.480 --> 0:20:17.240 on the retail side, things had changed dramatically as well. 0:20:17.440 --> 0:20:20.720 So back in the nineties you really needed to form 0:20:20.800 --> 0:20:23.960 those strong relationships with retailers. You needed to make sure 0:20:24.080 --> 0:20:28.720 that your games were being carried and best Buy and 0:20:28.720 --> 0:20:34.160 in various retail establishments in malls whose names I totally 0:20:34.200 --> 0:20:37.440 forget now because it's been so long since those even existed. 0:20:37.720 --> 0:20:40.879 But today it's a totally different world. The name of 0:20:40.920 --> 0:20:44.120 the game now is really digital distribution. Yes, there are 0:20:44.160 --> 0:20:47.800 still companies making physical media, and you can buy physical 0:20:47.840 --> 0:20:51.520 copies of games, at least some games, but more often 0:20:51.560 --> 0:20:55.560 than not, people are buying games through an online store 0:20:56.040 --> 0:20:59.520 like Steam or Epic, or even just a proprietary store 0:20:59.600 --> 0:21:03.000 run by the video game publisher. But you're not having 0:21:03.000 --> 0:21:07.639 to go through a retailer anymore, and that has changed 0:21:07.680 --> 0:21:11.160 dramatically so that part of E three is no longer 0:21:11.280 --> 0:21:16.280 as relevant. However, we're not yet done with E three, 0:21:16.600 --> 0:21:19.880 so in twenty sixteen, the ESA decided to dip its 0:21:19.920 --> 0:21:23.119 toe into the thought of opening up E three to 0:21:23.200 --> 0:21:26.760 the public. Now, it didn't really go whole hog. In fact, 0:21:27.240 --> 0:21:31.399 it kept E three insulated from the public, but instead 0:21:31.400 --> 0:21:35.199 they set up a smaller space where the general public 0:21:35.280 --> 0:21:38.320 could go. They kept a tight cap on attendance, but 0:21:38.359 --> 0:21:43.879 it was free to go, and the ESA didn't really 0:21:43.960 --> 0:21:48.800 have experience in creating public facing events that you might 0:21:48.880 --> 0:21:52.640 find at something like PACKS. Packs from the very beginning 0:21:52.840 --> 0:21:57.359 was considered as a public facing event. Originally PACK stood 0:21:57.359 --> 0:22:00.480 for Penny Arcade Expo, and it was into to be 0:22:00.640 --> 0:22:06.120 a gaming oriented event, whether that would be video games 0:22:06.200 --> 0:22:09.560 or tabletop games, all sorts of games. That was the 0:22:09.600 --> 0:22:12.959 whole intent of PACKS, and it grew and grew and 0:22:13.000 --> 0:22:15.800 grew to the point where it rivaled and in some 0:22:15.920 --> 0:22:20.600 cases got larger than E three and it was run 0:22:20.640 --> 0:22:23.639 in a very different way. Well, the ESA didn't have 0:22:23.680 --> 0:22:27.359 that experience, and a lot of attendees found that despite 0:22:27.720 --> 0:22:32.120 the fact that the ESA was capping attendance, it still 0:22:32.200 --> 0:22:35.200 was a very crowded space. It was hard to get 0:22:35.240 --> 0:22:39.879 any appreciable time on popular titles, and you know, it 0:22:40.080 --> 0:22:42.919 just wasn't fun. You were standing in line for a 0:22:42.920 --> 0:22:44.480 lot of the time. You might get to play a 0:22:44.480 --> 0:22:46.840 game for about five or ten minutes, and then you 0:22:46.840 --> 0:22:51.080 had to go and stand in another line. By the way, 0:22:51.119 --> 0:22:53.480 it was not that much different for media back in 0:22:53.520 --> 0:22:57.840 the day. If you were important enough media, then you 0:22:57.840 --> 0:22:59.800 could essentially get a skip to the head of the 0:23:00.080 --> 0:23:04.200 line pass. But otherwise you'd be waiting in that line 0:23:04.400 --> 0:23:07.359 with everybody else, trying to get some time on a 0:23:07.600 --> 0:23:10.480 title so you could form some impressions on it. It 0:23:10.560 --> 0:23:14.320 was not the most efficient or fun experience. I mean, 0:23:14.359 --> 0:23:16.760 it could always be exciting to get a chance to 0:23:16.760 --> 0:23:20.000 play something that was you know, not even released yet, 0:23:20.440 --> 0:23:25.400 but beyond that that, that initial little burst of dopamine 0:23:25.480 --> 0:23:28.280 was not enough to keep you going as you're waiting 0:23:28.320 --> 0:23:30.480 for you know, hour number two to try the new 0:23:30.480 --> 0:23:35.199 God of wargame for five minutes Meanwhile, the industry and 0:23:35.280 --> 0:23:38.520 media attendees were looking at the general public the way 0:23:38.600 --> 0:23:41.320 everyone else had been looking at bloggers back in two 0:23:41.359 --> 0:23:43.920 thousand and six, you know, kind of with that snobby 0:23:44.000 --> 0:23:46.480 look that people get. And I'll admit it, I was 0:23:46.520 --> 0:23:49.200 one of those snobby people. But I wasn't so much 0:23:49.240 --> 0:23:54.800 saying like, oh, the commoners have arrived. Instead, I was 0:23:54.840 --> 0:23:57.280 just finding it harder and harder to cover E three 0:23:57.400 --> 0:24:01.840 professionally because more folks were showing up and crowding up 0:24:01.880 --> 0:24:06.119 the space. That crowding really began in twenty seventeen, because 0:24:06.119 --> 0:24:09.399 that's when the ESA did start selling tickets to the 0:24:09.400 --> 0:24:12.040 general public. They had a limited number, I think it 0:24:12.080 --> 0:24:15.520 was like fifteen thousand that first year, but they were 0:24:15.560 --> 0:24:18.680 selling those tickets and that gave them access to the 0:24:18.720 --> 0:24:21.600 actual show floor. It was no longer a separate space. 0:24:21.920 --> 0:24:24.000 If it had been a separate space, then it wouldn't 0:24:24.000 --> 0:24:27.240 have had a big impact on the experience inside the 0:24:27.280 --> 0:24:31.000 show itself. But you had the general public mingling with 0:24:31.240 --> 0:24:34.320 industry and media and it just made it harder to 0:24:34.359 --> 0:24:39.600 get around and harder to get access to anything. So now, 0:24:40.359 --> 0:24:43.120 on one hand, you could see the ESA's dilemma, right 0:24:43.240 --> 0:24:46.160 because companies were starting to bow out of E three, 0:24:47.040 --> 0:24:50.000 and the ESA had depended in part on those companies 0:24:50.280 --> 0:24:53.239 paying to be part of the E three event and 0:24:53.280 --> 0:24:57.320 to drive attendance to E three. So money was effectively 0:24:57.640 --> 0:25:01.199 leaving E three because these big companies were starting to 0:25:01.240 --> 0:25:04.120 pull out and hold their own events. So the ESA 0:25:04.280 --> 0:25:06.880 had to come up with a new strategy, which might 0:25:06.920 --> 0:25:09.520 be one reason they chose to sell tickets. Those tickets 0:25:09.560 --> 0:25:12.480 weren't cheap, by the way. In twenty seventeen they went 0:25:12.520 --> 0:25:15.040 for two hundred and fifty bucks a pop, though I 0:25:15.119 --> 0:25:18.840