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The event is already well known among
regular attendees for problems relating to
excessive crowding and long wait times
(over two hours) to even sit in on a theater
presentation for industry folk without media
credentials.
On the first and second mornings, safety
concerns over the influx of people crowding
around the entrances to the South and West
halls forced the show's organisers to open
the doors 15 minutes earlier to avoid a crush.
Despite recent events around the globe, not a
single bag was checked and passes were barely
scanned; security measures were left to the
occasional bomb-detecting dog and handler
moving through the masses.
Once inside, the old E3 magic was present
with sonorous audio and towering booth
designs, but as expected, traversal across
the show floor was painfully slow. Attendees
shuffled with the sedated speed of a funeral
cortege, heads cranked at 90 degrees, faces
illuminated with the glow of smartphones.
Appointment times went awry and elbows
were employed to cut a swathe through the
perpetual pedestrian rush hour. Choke points in
booth layout design brought the flow to a halt in
many locations.
I can remember writing some three years
ago that E3 needed to run for the entire week
and not just Monday (press conferences) to
Thursday. With EA Play kicking off proceedings
on the Saturday at the Hollywood Palladium
(incidentally, for those interested in the history
of Hollywood, the site of the original Paramount
Studios), and Microsoft, along with Bethesda,
declared that console gaming was dead back
in 2010. It’s small, packs a punch and will be
in your hands on November 7, although I’d
be pre-ordering one now if you’re keen to
secure it at launch.
But E3 is all about the games and the
excitement surrounding the software
announcements – and the potential
of playing them – that jerk you from
the grip of jet lag. And aside from the
prolonged wait times (worst job of
the show surely went to the dozens
of employees standing around holding
“The queue ends here” signs for
eight hours a day), there was plenty of
opportunity to do that, with some strong
titles on offer from the major players.
While the show lacked the killer
announcements that knock you out of your
seat, and felt more like one of the filler shows
that come along midway through a console
cycle, alongside the aforementioned Xbox One
X, there are some big games coming in 2017 –
and into the first quarter of 2018 – to whet the
appetite. Indie games felt under-represented;
a resurgence in triple-A titles – encouragingly
featuring a proliferation of female protagonists
– led the way.
It’s always inspiring to see the youthful
fervour at E3. It’s easy to be cynical when you
have covered so many of the shows and only
natural to form the opinion that you’ve seen it all
before, but the aenthusiasm for the video game
industry was ever present in Los Angeles. This
was evidenced by those patient gamers who
stood in line for over four hours to play a 10 to
15 minute demo of their favourite game.
The ESA will no doubt now reconvene in the
shadow of E3 to think tank 2018, and attempt
to work out a formula where community and
media obligations are better fulfilled. The show
remains an important part of the annual gaming
calendar and opening the doors to the public is
a positive, and necessary, move.
However, there is one thing at E3 that
never changes; the cyclical nature of trends,
generations and hardware continually transform
the gaming landscape, but the passion and
commitment for video games remains
undiminished.
holding its media briefings on Sunday, fingers
were hammering keyboards well in advance of
the Monday media day of old; the E3 carnival
now extended over six days.
Personally, I thought Ubisoft claimed
the media briefing crown this year with a
diverse mix of regular franchises and new IP
highlighting the creativity synonymous with the
French publisher. Overall, a new trend in the E3
press conferences materialised in 2017. Gone
were teams of devs playing 15 minute hands-on
demos onstage. The events were sleek and
streamlined, rarely creeping over the 60 minute
mark, and concentrating – rightly so – on the
games, with minimal commentary.
Covers were pulled off Microsoft’s new
console, the Xbox One X (Scorpiox for me)
laughing in the face of the commentators that
The show remains an
important part of the annual
gaming calendar and
opening the doors to the
public is a positive, and
necessary, move
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FEATURE
GAMES