Mourning past E3s and dreaming of future ones ...
The city of dim stars
Despite the absence of a large chunk of the usual public, c 'are those who do not give up investing in the giant advertising features around the Convention Center, just like Call of Duty Modern Warfare II The Los Angeles Convention Center, right where the largest and most important fair in the gaming world was held annually, rises as sunny as the more laconic cathedral in the desert. A desert without sand, of course, but of concrete and skyscrapers whose construction has slowed down in some cases to a complete halt. Instead of the gigantic billboards dedicated to Sonic or the latest prodigy Sony, Microsoft or Nintendo, to cover the various entrances of the famous exhibition facility, there is a sad sign that announces what is perhaps the most distant thing of all compared to the colorful and sparkling video game fun: a political and frictional meeting on the fate of the americas.There is also Joe Biden, forty-sixth president of the United States, who with his presence militarized the surrounding streets, making the Convention Center gray, sad and unapproachable. CIA vans replace the usual hordes of jubilant, heavily armored police youths take the place of fanfare and carnival cosplayer gatherings. Not even the Staples Center, the Laker stadium a few meters ahead, lives up to his festive reputation: without LeBron's successes, the recent loss of Kobe Bryant stands out even more.
Fundamental gatherings
Geoff Keighley is super helpful and his passion is undoubted, but by himself he certainly cannot replace an institution like E3 Yet despite everything we are here, crime scene and as soon as possible, as soon as we were allowed. Here to start over, here to continue to follow what remains our greatest passion: video games of course. And we are here thanks to the effort of those we have often criticized, precisely that Geoff Keighley who, moved by the same fire for some years, has begun to appropriate the spaces that E3 gradually left free, until this year he completely takes its place, replaced by a renewed, but still unripe Summer Game Fest. Covid has put its name in it, but E3 was unrecognizable for many editions before the pandemic accelerated its fall. More and more expensive for exhibitors, less and less useful for business and less and less attractive for journalists and fans, the Los Angeles fair was already destined for a very noisy debacle, yet it remained fundamental even if perhaps more for us than for you. Nowhere else and at no other time was it possible to meet so many people in the sector, developers, producers and deep throats ready to give you the unexpected scoop, or the rumor with which to burn the Sunday leakers on time.Events and fortuitous encounters
The E3 that never was, or the early pandemic edition of 2020 Geoff Keighley's Summer Game Fest is not E3, it is not will never be: this first edition in attendance is microscopic, devoid of weighty names and really important games, yet despite the ghostly city and the limits of the exhibition it was the occasion that many, including us, were waiting to return to shake hands and weaving that network of contacts which is indispensable to carry out this work in the best possible way. In the day just passed we got to know the creator of Dead Space Glen Schofield, now working on The Callisto Protocol and tomorrow we will have a chat with Kauhiro Tsuchiya and Takayuki Nakayama of Capcom, respectively producer and game director of the awaited Street Fighter 6. We will also have breakfast with the Bloober Team guys, chasing rumors to catch them and finally turn them into certainties.Ten small developers
From all over the world and all together, united by a single great passion: the one for video games Meanwhile, the ghosts of the past E3 are slowly giving way to those of the future E3 because the fair of fairs, after being officially dead, prepares the great return for 2023. E3 and Summer Game Fest , also ready to return next year, are therefore preparing to share the scene, or to merge into a unique experience. But fairs and showcases are a relative problem, if the games themselves are missing. The gaming industry at this moment is terribly short of breath, it no longer seems able to keep up with the dreams of the public, good only to confirm the preventive disappointments that seem to move the passion, or allegedly, of the fans. Who should fill the spaces of the Los Angeles Convention Center if indies, the real beating heart of the videogame industry, cannot afford them and the software houses free from bulky owners are fewer and fewer?Evolution or involution?
The Summer Game Fest of 2022, the first in attendance, is a good experiment, but for next year it will take much more effort Of course, taking advantage of this time of year is convenient for everyone, even those who have recently they pretended not to be interested in it, like PlayStation which first of all slipped off the E3 bandwagon and ended up in the shadow cast by the big announcements of the competition. In fact, this year Sony has made itself heard and will probably do so again in the coming weeks.After all, even if only out of habit, video game enthusiasts know that these are the weeks of E3 and they remain so even without E3. It is in this period that public attention is at the highest level, and not exploiting it hoping that things will change does not seem to be the best strategy. But of course it can't continue like this, we need new shows built on new formulas, able to include every type of game without any budget distinction which is what we have returned to do thanks to the Summer Game Fest. It might even help to switch cities, which E3 already did at the beginning of its long history, when it flew from Atlanta to Los Angeles without ever looking back.
There's a better time than now to make changes so radical?
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