The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) wants to increase the value of E3, especially with Sony and Activision’s absence from the 2019 event, and it looks like a more fan-oriented approach is their strategy.
It’s fair to say that the annual Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) has faced some criticism lately. The event, which was once exclusive to industry professional, has recently opened its doors to more consumers and fans. Many attendees from 2019’s E3 complained that lines are too long for the small amount of gameplay they got to experience. Not to mention the massive data leak that revealed the personal information of over 200 journalists.
Suffice it to say, E3 may need a makeover.
The ESA proposed an E3 show floor that is friendly to fans, celebrities and influencers. First of all the ESA approved 10,000 consumer attendee badges, the most E3 has ever seen. In anticipation for their largest flow of people, ESA proposed an app to book gameplay times.
The app surely won’t ease up lines entirely, which is why the proposal mentions “queuetainment,” a marketing tactic for people standing in lines. This will relieve some of the boredom for line waiting attendees while companies have a greater opportunity to sell their products.
The proposal also focuses on paid influencers and celebrities by using talent representation agencies such as the United Talent Agency and the Creative Artist Agency. Examples of celebrity usage look like Los Angeles Lakers playing a basketball video game for attendees or actors participating in some type of gaming tournament.
Even though E3 is famous for huge gaming news and major company representation, it is far from the biggest gaming event. Gamescom 2019 had 373k entries while E3 2019 had 66k entries. This new proposal looks much more like the gaming festival that is Gamescom.
Biggest gaming exhibitions / trade shows of by number of entries:
Gamescom 2019: 373k
ChinaJoy 2019: 365k
Brazil Games Show 2018: 325k
Taipei Game Show 2019: 320k
Paris Games Week 2018: 316k
Tokyo Game Show 2019: 262k
G-Star Korea 2018: 235k
…..
E3 2019: 66k— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) September 16, 2019
With the greater focus on consumers, the ESA also proposed an industry-only day before the floor opens to consumers. In more alarming news, the proposal also includes paid media partnerships to enable the ESA to control content and messages. This surely won’t fly over well with the press and their first amendment rights.
The full proposal can be found here.
