According to news site VentureBeat PC games will be almost gone from this years upcoming E3 Expo. Take a look:
Read the whole article from VentureBeat here.
As the video game industry gears up for its annual E3 conference in July, the reality is setting in that the one-time entertainment extravaganza has become narrowly focused on console games, with very little room for PC games.
Even Microsoft and Intel, the champions of the PC, have conceded that point. Intel isn’t holding any press conferences or functions at the show. And Kevin Unangst, senior global director of Windows gaming at Microsoft, said his team decided to show off PC games at an event in San Francisco this week to avoid being overshadowed at E3. (Unangst pictured below).
“As it has morphed, E3 has fundamentally become a console show,” he said. “We didn’t want to just squeeze out some time at a console show.”
The absence of PC games goes along with the absence of a lot of other things at the show. E3 drew 70,000 people a couple of years ago. But big companies balked at the costs and downsized the show to a gaming press event. Now with just a few thousand attendees, the show is much more focused. That leaves some nostalgic.
“E3 used to be the mecca of gaming,” said Rahul Sood, head of Hewlett-Packard’s VoodooPC game computer division. “I’m skipping it because it’s not what it used to be. Now it’s just an event called E3.”
Separate from the issue of PC versus console games, a number of companies have pulled out of the Entertainment Software Association that sponsors the show, including Activision, LucasArts, Vivendi, id Software and Crave Entertainment. Some of the companies will either still be at the show or show off games nearby.
Still, the low visibility of PC games could be yet another blow to both the show and the ESA itself. E3’s troubles are so big that Gamecock, the resident clown of the game industry, is staging its own BE-3 initiative (i.e. publicity stunt) and Mike Wilson, “grand champeen” of the company, is running for ESA president on a platform of “bringing fun back to the industry.” Read More...
Even Microsoft and Intel, the champions of the PC, have conceded that point. Intel isn’t holding any press conferences or functions at the show. And Kevin Unangst, senior global director of Windows gaming at Microsoft, said his team decided to show off PC games at an event in San Francisco this week to avoid being overshadowed at E3. (Unangst pictured below).
“As it has morphed, E3 has fundamentally become a console show,” he said. “We didn’t want to just squeeze out some time at a console show.”
The absence of PC games goes along with the absence of a lot of other things at the show. E3 drew 70,000 people a couple of years ago. But big companies balked at the costs and downsized the show to a gaming press event. Now with just a few thousand attendees, the show is much more focused. That leaves some nostalgic.
“E3 used to be the mecca of gaming,” said Rahul Sood, head of Hewlett-Packard’s VoodooPC game computer division. “I’m skipping it because it’s not what it used to be. Now it’s just an event called E3.”
Separate from the issue of PC versus console games, a number of companies have pulled out of the Entertainment Software Association that sponsors the show, including Activision, LucasArts, Vivendi, id Software and Crave Entertainment. Some of the companies will either still be at the show or show off games nearby.
Still, the low visibility of PC games could be yet another blow to both the show and the ESA itself. E3’s troubles are so big that Gamecock, the resident clown of the game industry, is staging its own BE-3 initiative (i.e. publicity stunt) and Mike Wilson, “grand champeen” of the company, is running for ESA president on a platform of “bringing fun back to the industry.” Read More...
Read the whole article from VentureBeat here.
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