As a video game obsessed teen in the mid 2000's it used to be the most exciting event of the year. It was where you learned about everything that was happening in the industry.
It's been a shadow of its former self for a long time though so as sad as it is to see it go, I think it was time to move on once everyone and their mother and grandmother started being perpetually online.
I preferred E3 to the hyper individualist online things like the Nintendo Direct. It seemed like more of an even playing field where you could learn about general trends and games instead of having curated slop.
I dunno, I liked seeing the games and companies competing with each other in a shared space instead of these echo chambers that remind me of gamefaqs forums.
My memories of E3 are few since I never particularly cared, but when I was like 19 and going to college for something I never finished, I had a bunch of friends that were super hype for it and we were all planning on going out to it in like 2010, not only to go to the con, but to also try to network since we all wanted a job in the games industry. Some other students that were close to graduating gave out some tips on how to approach some bigger names at the event. The only thing that still sticks out to me is how we were told to buy a pack of cigarettes, and go to the smoking sections and hang out to chat up studio people and even if we didn't actually smoke, we should have a lit cigarette in our mouths. Apparently this worked for a number of other people at the school.
Did any companies ever come out ahead from E3? I guess the announcement of the Wii was a big deal that caused a bug uproar.
Nowadays all I remember are the very embarrassing things. Those moments make me feel warm inside. I can't imagine companies were very excited knowing one of them would be made into the industry laughingstock for that year
One million troops, woooow. Giant enemy crab. Intense staring guy at the Konami panel. My body is ready. It's spooooky.
That is a pretty good summary of it, yeah. You never got to be the star of E3. You either sailed through it without any major fuckups or you were giant enemy crab guy. No alternatives.
looking forward to the death of E3 being integrated into the Game Awards where 95% of the runtime is just advertising for their games and the Award Winners have 15 seconds to speak before being ushered off the stage. This seems normal and good