id Software Leaves ESA
Best known for its work on the DOOM and Quake series, id joins other recent ESA departees LucasArts, Vivendi and Activision.
Outside of the ESA's claims that LucasArts' exit was a result of "unique factors," no reason has been provided for the withdrawals. However, rumors point to issues with ESA president Mike Gallagher, who took up the role last year.
It had previously been revealed that the ESA's decision to relocate its E3 gathering to Santa Monica last year cost the association upwards of $5 million, partially due to the violation of a long-term contract with the Los Angeles Convention Center.
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Fayk
replyAny idea what these 'issues' (rumors or otherwise) may be? Policies, fees, or...?
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If it's true I can't say I blame them. Why pay for a format that several have openly claimed to not enjoy. The older shows may have been un-necessarily showey/flashey, but people liked them.
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The old E3 was fatally broken, it needed to be replaced with something else. Companies were spending the budget of an entire game title on their E3 show floor presence (a few companies spent over $10 million a year, Xbox may have spent over $20 mil one year). Too many non-industry people were attending, making it more and more difficult to attend to the business of the show, which was retailers deciding which games to feature during the fall & holiday season.
The move to Santa Monica was definitely cheaper for the attendees (no gigantic booths, etc) and allowed the business stuff to happen with less distraction, but since it was so spread out, travel time made up a significant piece of everyone's day. People also thought, "wait a minute, if this is just about business, why do we have to have everything in one place and at one time again? We can just meet with the retailers on our own schedule."-
I understand your points and agree with them for the most part, but I do remember reading off hand that some developers didn't appreciate the change in format, nor did they appreciate that the change was done without their consent.
Normally if I'm taking someone's money, I would ask their opinion and offer additional options on things that could be changed for the better. Obviously some folks may not have been happy with how the show had become over the years, but how many individual companies left because of it? Why the sudden need to leave now?-
Sure, some developers were using E3 as their big press event, and a way to get noticed. That was taken away from them - getting press from cheap spectacle was no longer an option.
However, making the design of the show into a committee decision can't possibly go smoothly. So many different types of companies were trying to get so many different things out of E3, you could never reach a consensus with that crowd. The E3 organizers did essentially what their biggest customers told them to do, but they kinda fucked it up, so now everyone's on their own.
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Too many mother-uckers uckin with their shi.
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Hahahaha. I love you.
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