E3 to return in early June 2009, to be open to the public

Scoop: E3 2009 To Take Place During First Week of June, Be Open To the Public, Attendance Capped At 40,000

Level Up has just learned that after long, bruising and politically difficult negotiations, the Entertainment Software Association is preparing to announce tomorrow that E3 2009 will take place at the Los Angeles Convention Center during the first week of June--and that for the first time, E3 will officially open its doors to the public at large. According to a source close to the process, the convention floor and meeting rooms will open on Tuesday June 2nd to media and industry professionals. On Friday June 5th and Saturday June 6th, however, the show floor will open up to the public. What about the famous press conferences from Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony, along with a handful of third party publishers? Our source told us to "expect a boat load of press conferences on Monday during the day and on Tuesday morning."

Internally, the ESA and its members are referring to the event as a "prosumer show," a term our source found puzzling. Presumably it refers to the ESA's intent to reach out to not necessarily the world at large, but to media, industry professionals and the most avid gamers. For while attendance is expected to rise dramatically from the 2008 show, our source informed us that the ESA is aiming to cap next year's attendance at 40,000. That's significantly less than the record 70,000 people that attended E3 in 2005, and it's also less than the nearly 60,000 people who attended this year's Penny Arcade Expo in August in downtown Seattle.

Three years ago, when the ESA decided to drastically scale back E3 in response to the annual carping about the show's cost to its members, industry scuttlebutt pegged the Four Horsemen most responsible for the original format's demise as the three console manufacturers--Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo--and leading third party publisher Electronic Arts. But as the song goes, sometimes you don't know what you got 'til it's gone, and two years of the new min-E3--first spread out over downtown Santa Monica, then as a shell of its former self back at the L.A. Convention Center--was pleasing no-one, to say nothing of publishers like Activision Blizzard, which pulled out of E3 and the ESA entirely. Clearly, something had to be done.

Still, it wasn't easy. "It was a long journey to get there, politically," says our source. "After vehemently opposing a bigger show three years ago--to now go back to the board, admit a mistake, and advocate for a bigger show. It reflects well on the organization and the board to recognize they made a mistake and, regardless of how it would look publicly, go ahead and fix it." According to our source, Electronic Arts is one of the Four Horseman that changed its mind and strongly championed a bigger show. We tried to ascertain where the three platform holders stand regarding the new format for E3 2009, but on that point, our source remained coy. "The [big] three positions are opposed, indifferent and mildly supportive--not going to say which is which—to adding a consumer show on the back of the media and business summit."

chalkitdown wrote:\o/

"The [big] three positions are opposed, indifferent and mildly supportive--not going to say which is which—to adding a consumer show on the back of the media and business summit."

chalkitdown wrote:Ok, who's going?

'The Old E3 Is Making a Comeback': E3 Loosens Attendance Restrictions for 2009

Amidst widespread criticism, E3 2009 will significantly loosen attendance criteria for the invite-only video game trade show and should see "tens of thousands" of attendees, according to game-oriented news network G4.

Correspondent Blair Herter announced the shift on tonight's episode of X-Play, noting that the 2009 show will occur in the usual LA Convention Center location from Tuesday, June 2 though Thursday, June 4.

"The old E3 is making a comeback," Herter proclaimed, promising that more details and information would arrive tomorrow via an announcement from event organizer ESA.

"A broader range of industry guests will be invited. While event won't technically be open to the pubic with ticket sales, this does mean that more people will have a shot at attending, and yes, I'm talking about you," he promised G4 viewers.

A separate report from respected game journalist N'Gai Croal claims that the show will actually run through Saturday, June 6, and will be open to the public on Friday and Saturday. According to his Newsweek article, attendance will be capped at 40,000.

The news marks the second major shift for the show in just as many years. After 2006, the yearly event was downsized, going from industry-only to invite-only attendance. It was also retitled to the E3 Media & Business Summit, pushed into July from its usual May timeframe, and relocated to Santa Monica instead of the usual LA Convention Center.

Though the show returned to LA Convention Center this past July, the move did little to address criticism that the show had lost its spectacle and become irrelevant.

Herbi wrote:

"The [big] three positions are opposed, indifferent and mildly supportive--not going to say which is which—to adding a consumer show on the back of the media and business summit."

Tineash wrote:Ooh, juicy! Is that big three hardware manufacturers or big three software publishers?