E3's Exaggerated Death

Contrary to reports across the web, E3 has not been cancelled. Next-Gen had hoped that they would blow the lid off of a hot story by revealing that the show had been cancelled, but some quick fact checking shows that they are simply incorrect. Sources close to the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) tell Ars Technica that the show can and will go on, but that big changes are planned. The "Electronic Entertainment Expo" (hence E3) started in 1995 as a small but interesting annual convention for gaming, following roughly six months after the once-popular annual COMDEX computer trade-show in Las Vegas. The show has grown immensely in popularity, and that appears to be the problem.

-- E3 game trade show not cancelled, but will be downsized

Wow, a major gaming news site getting their facts completely wrong and making a big splash with it? Color me shocked. Points go to Ars Technica for actually, you know, researching a story.

As for E3, I'm not sure I can muster enough energy to care whether it lives and breathes. It's early. It's Monday. The Girl and I got caught up in a late night BuffyFest and the size of my cranium indicates that my key lime absente mixes were a tad more powerful than I reckoned. E3? E3 has turned into little more than a press release orgasm. It's always giving people that false sense of reality. Didn't E3 promise us Duke Nukem Forever? And Sony's showing at the last E3 is what started the downward spiral of "OMG THE PLAYSTATION IS DOOMED" meme. I mean, talk about hangovers ... E3 always seems to leave the gaming world a little overexcited, somewhat dehydrated and quite often a bit embarrased about what might have been said the night before.

I think I could survive without.





tagged: e3, gaming