EA to Skip E3 this year 2019 in favour of EA Play

[Shortbread]

Sure, but then you see press coverage generated by a new trailer for a much anticipated game dropping on YouTube in 2018 like God of War, Spider-Man and RDR2, all of which got insane amounts of press coverage including in non-gaming media from new trailers or footage - and enjoyed coverage longer because of less competition.

I don't know how many podcasts you listen to, but the ones I ones I do paint a different story of E3 by the people who cover it. E3 is the equivalent of 3-4 months press coverage condensed into five days; what used to be three official press event days plus conferences that start on the weekend prior, but now it's down to two (IIRC) official press days. You're not getting good quality press coverage from E3, every site is simply regurgitating the same pre-prepared PR material. Interviews are staged or heavily managed by PR people. The press people are rushing about, frazzled.

Events like this, EGX, GamesCom are great for the public. I get along to EGX when I can.



That's a pretty big 'other than'. Anything somebody announces, unless it is earth-shattering, is going to be the centre of attention for anywhere between 60 seconds and maybe a few hours before something else is announced that garners everyone's attention and knocks your story down any gaming web page. The volume of coverage of E3 is also going to be more than casuals will consume. And casuals are by far the biggest number of portion gamers.

In Government Press Office, they refer to media days like E3 goods days to bury bad news because very people can keep up with it all. You just can't if you have a full time job or other full-time commitments, a family etc. It's too much.

I agree with a lot of your points, as well as iroboto's sentiments. However, I still feel Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo and many of the triple-A game Publishers/Developers (e.g., EA, UBI, Activision, Bethesda, etc.) aren't necessarily hurting themselves by missing one or more E3 events in favor of their own specialized events. Look at how well (well being an understatement) Rockstar does without [ignitial] E3 exposure when announcing titles. Gaming companies whom are well established can pretty much carry their own weight (i.e., hype, branding, self-promotion, etc.) without necessarily needing an event like E3. I also believe more smaller independent companies can benefit more from E3 without being vastly overshadowed by the major players within the gaming industry. And possibly receiving more exposure (if their wares are impressive) from such specialized events held by Sony, Microsoft or Nintendo.

 

[iroboto]

However, I still feel Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo and many of the triple-A game Publishers/Developers (e.g., EA, UBI, Activision, Bethesda, etc.) aren't necessarily hurting themselves by missing one or more E3 events in favor of their own specialized events.

I would consider this to be the next best thing.

Something to consider for all events E3 or private mainly revolves around timing. E3 is generally in a good position to hype up products leading up to Christmas which makes the event also strategic to sales success. That being said the hype/promotional cycles that people like or want are changing with the times, which might lend to why were seeing more separation away from E3 aside from trying to generate breathing room in the media for their own products.

That being said, MS having the whole of E3 to themselves means a lot to beneficial things, in terms of both breathing room in the media, and having their choice picks of marketing deals with 3P on their stage.

And they get the opportunity to reveal new services and Features of the platform without being heavily overshadowed by other things.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

That being said, MS having the whole of E3 to themselves means a lot to beneficial things, in terms of both breathing room in the media, and having their choice picks of marketing deals with 3P on their stage.

Yes, but that's a different argument really.

Does a large console player/publisher need to be at E3? No.
If everyone else abandons E3 leaving one console company/publisher, is it worth their staying. Yes. Unless enough leave such the show becomes too small for the media to bother with it.

For this E3, it makes zero sense for MS to leave. Like Brexit

 

[iroboto]

Yes, but that's a different argument really.

Agreed. It OT. It’s somewhat related but alas. Yes. Reminds me of globalization. A bit. When trade with cargo ships happened, all sorts of industry congregated together beside ports. All the industries even though they may have been competing all develop in the same areas because it decreases transportation costs and makes things more efficient.

Everyone and all the big players would have to leave E3 at the same time for E3 to be truly irrelevant, but i suspect it may be challenging to give up E3 if your competitor is planning to give it up. And if E3 is in fact losing its lustre, the costs to appear at E3 should come down accordingly with demand.

Not coming to E3 has a lot more to do with whether the company has enough to present at that time, and if not they’ll need to do it elsewhere perhaps at a different conference.

 

[Cyan]

Doubt it. Sony and EA are so well established in gaming that any live or streaming pressers would be internationally covered, and watched by millions of viewers (live, streamed, recorded, etc.).

It is not the same not to make a conference (like Nintendo has been doing for years and now EA) that not going to the E3 which is what Sony will do. Nintendo stopped doing conferences, but has continued to go to the E3 with its treehouse format which is for me the best exhibitor now, with hours and hours of gameplay of the games shown, organizing tournaments and such.

 

[AlNom]

They would still be viewed and do very well I think, at the very least, vastly better than a pure youtube strategy (you are at the whim of the youtube algorithm)
E3 being the junction of multiple conferences may increase the viewership more than a isolated conference, because the expectations are higher and thus more people are waiting and reporting on the biggest announcements around that time.

There might be a small correlation that being around E3 the venue as to leading to more success, vs. the releasing your announcements during E3 (the second best thing you can do)

A lot of companies have talked about being overshadowed by competitor news etc. And there is probably a strong case for that, and they likely have data points to suggest this. But the largest number of written articles/media about games during E3 is probably unmatched at any other time of the year; and this is likely because as a media company, it's most efficient to send writers to write/video as much as possible during E3. As a games website, you're going to get the most hits because you've got all the content from as many sources as possible all at once. Advertising is at it's highest payout when your traffic is at it's highest. So E3 is a bit of a 'Super Bowl' effect for gaming websites and advertising.

Whereas separate events it might be costly to send a journalist here and then next month over there and next over there, Xbox may not care to advertise on sites during a Sony press conference. But may try to overpay sites to dominate during E3.

How about super-mecha-combining with other heavy game-related events like GDC or SIGGRAPH? I'm not sure what the impact is towards development schedules (if it would be good or not). I suppose it get too crowded for Gamescom & TGS (also a bit of a target market/audience issue).

Or maybe it's just better to fly journalists to the studio/publisher event when the studios are ready instead of having dev houses crunch like crazy for the months leading up to E3 although perhaps a predictable annual scheduled allocation is useful on there anyway, but then games release at odd times of the year anyway depending on how well the dev studio is managing.

Things are also kinda tied to the fiscal year too. *cough*

 

[iroboto]

How about super-mecha-combining with other heavy game-related events like GDC or SIGGRAPH? I'm not sure what the impact is towards development schedules (if it would be good or not). I suppose it get too crowded for Gamescom & TGS (also a bit of a target market/audience issue).

Audience issue there. Those events aren't for press releases, they are there for developers to learn and speak to other developers.

Or maybe it's just better to fly journalists to the studio/publisher event when the studios are ready instead of having dev houses crunch like crazy for the months leading up to E3 although perhaps a predictable annual scheduled allocation is useful on there anyway, but then games release at odd times of the year anyway depending on how well the dev studio is managing.

Things are also kinda tied to the fiscal year too. *cough*

This is done from time to time, we've seen it with Apex Legends, and we see it here and there.
Unless dev houses are planning to always fly 400 some odd people to their studio for every singler title release, it's still not as good as being on a grand stage. i can't imagine being able to hit every title either. There are way more games released in a year than there are journalists and to have them flying everywhere is not logistically an easy thing to succeed at. And most journalist did not sign up to be in the air every day flying location to location to play and write about games.

I would say that developers and studios have been working to get away from a pure E3 only method. So in that respect, I think what you see today with a youtube launch, or a twitch streamer invite, speed runner invite, flying in journalists to come play the title, Nintendo direct, are all other diverse methods that have been introduced to market a title without having to wait for E3. I think without a doubt that there is a strong argument for those to have a place (and they have been gaining momentum), but E3 still also has its place at least imo for now. The landscape will have to continually progress away from E3 for me to declare E3 irrelevant. Right now it's still very much relevant, but we also have a lot of other new ways to market to the crowd, but I wouldn't mistake the introduction of those new methods as making E3 irrelevant.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

Sure, but then you see press coverage generated by a new trailer for a much anticipated game dropping on YouTube in 2018 like God of War, Spider-Man and RDR2, all of which got insane amounts of press coverage including in non-gaming media from new trailers or footage - and enjoyed coverage longer because of less competition.

I think the coverage of announcements by the non-gaming press can't be discounted here. While they will cover some of the E3, it's highly unlikely they'll cover anything that a company (even one as big as Sony) do outside of a large multi-company conference show (TGS, E3, Gamescom, etc.). And even then coverage of something like TGS in non-gaming media is generally limited to Japan and maybe some EU countries? While E3 is often covered by non-gaming media world wide to some extent.

While it's certainly arguable to what extent that is valuable, any additional press coverage is good to have, especially with non-traditional console buyers (those that give them as gifts, for example) or the more casual gamers that don't follow their console brand maker persistently or may not even follow gaming news sites.

Regards,
SB

 

[Deleted member 11852]

I think the coverage of announcements by the non-gaming press can't be discounted here. While they will cover some of the E3, it's highly unlikely they'll cover anything that a company (even one as big as Sony) do outside of a large multi-company conference show (TGS, E3, Gamescom, etc.). And even then coverage of something like TGS in non-gaming media is generally limited to Japan and maybe some EU countries? While E3 is often covered by non-gaming media world wide to some extent.

Because I work in Government I have to read The Guardian and they covered Spider-Man and God of War news, not just the final game releases. They do 'cover' (as in mention) E3, CES and other shows but a non-gaming publication is never going to have the journalists, column inches or web space to do something like E3 justice. Spider-Man at E3 gets a mention along with other notable titles shown. Spider-Man on it's own gets own story. Ditto, Halo.

While it's certainly arguable to what extent that is valuable, any additional press coverage is good to have, especially with non-traditional console buyers (those that give them as gifts, for example) or the more casual gamers that don't follow their console brand maker persistently or may not even follow gaming news sites.

I think coverage by non-gaming press is valuable, for the example you give.

 

[iroboto]

Because I work in Government I have to read The Guardian and they covered Spider-Man and God of War news, not just the final game releases. They do 'cover' (as in mention) E3, CES and other shows but a non-gaming publication is never going to have the journalists, column inches or web space to do something like E3 justice. Spider-Man at E3 gets a mention along with other notable titles shown. Spider-Man on it's own gets own story. Ditto, Halo.



I think coverage by non-gaming press is valuable, for the example you give.

Thinking parents as audience etc? Sometimes I think that as well, you're thinking about what your kid wants, that parent isn't going to go to resetera to figure out what's coming out. And youtube search algorithms isn't going to magically present them with the title they should be buying.