This year the E3 Expo in Los Angeles will take a bold step by allowing between four and five thousand members and of a public to attend the Expo through invite. The convention has long been reserved only for members the media, industry professionals, and retail buyers which allows for premium showcase not only for developers and publishers to show off their latest offerings, but for those in attendance to speak directly with developers and company officials. There are some that see this as a inevitable move toward what Gamescom and the Tokyo Game Show do my having days for both the press and the general public. PAX is a great example of how the public and press work together as while the shows are primarily for fans, there is a sizable media presence and in the several years that we have covered the show, there’s never been an issue with getting to our meetings and getting the coverage that we needed. In fact, it is an interesting counterbalance to see the reactions of the buying public when they get their first look at titles up close and hands-on.
As we prepare for coverage of E3 in a couple of weeks, I have already scheduled a solid number of meetings and have more on the way, I do not have any concerns that the addition of guest from the general public will in any way hamper my work short of possibly a bit longer lines getting into the halls at openings and around certain booths. The reason for this is that meeting set up by invite only are held often in private areas not open to the show floor such as a screening theater or other type of meeting room. The booth space with the games and displays are where the public is most likely to be so once I check into the desk of a company for a meeting, there will be nothing but industry professionals in our meeting.
PAX allows members of the media one hour early admission on the first day of the show, which we have used to make several visits to high profile companies before the legions of adoring fans are let into the venue. I can tell you that last year alone we were able to see and play three games at Sony, Alien Isolation, and make a couple of other stops and that first hour which allowed us to have more time with games that did not have meeting scheduled, and allowed us to have more up close time with the developers who many times would ask us to look them up one we had more time throughout the weekend.
So when people ask me is this a good or a bad thing for E3 to be doing, I say it is a good thing in that they are still first and foremost the show for professionals, but reaching out to the fan community to include them in the process as after all they are a huge part of the gaming industry.
I look forward to seeing how this year’s show will play out is are certainly some fantastic titles look forward to as well is the inevitable surprises that will arise, now we just have to see how the public handles being at this incredible show.
