The other shoe drops; companies setting up outside E3

Cyndy Aleo-Carreira — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 13:11:43 -0700

Two weeks ago, when news broke that Crave Entertainment had followed Activision, LucasArts, and Vivendi in leaving the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), I noted that something was afoot. The ESA's industry show E3 was overhauled last year, moving to a press-only showcase rather than the huge game show it once was, and now Forbes is reporting that at least one of the pull-outs is running their own press event. Activision will be holding their press event outside of E3 in a former church on the second night of the convention, taking advantage of the E3 press without having to pay the E3 rates.

Gameloft is doing much the same thing balking at the $400,000 spent to have a booth at E3 back in 2006. They say they will actually save money by driving a stretch Hummer around Los Angeles during E3 with demos running inside. Maybe the ESA will finnally get the picture when vendors would rather fill a gas guzzler up at almost 5 dollars/gal than, buy a booth at their show.

The Forbes article points out that the ESA lost a major vendor with Activision, whose revenues for 2008 are close to $3 billion. If the "business reasons" they cited in their withdrawal from the ESA and E3 are the cost of presenting at the show, how much more out of reach is it for small, independent houses?

Rumors had been circulating late last month that LucasArts would also pull a no-show at E3, but LucasArts' Director of Public Relations, Margaret Grohne, confirmed to me this morning that LucasArts will be participating in E3 as they stated at the time of their withdrawal from the ESA.

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The other shoe drops; companies setting up outside E3