Nintendo commits to next year's Min-E3

I shall henceforth call it the Electronic Entertainment Exposition Media Festival. (Or, as youve put it, Min-E3 for short.) It will merely be a shadow of its former glory, but that will not stop me from waiting for Nintendo's press conference like a rabid Japanese schoolgirl.

I assume this means they weren't part of the troop that facilitated the collapse this weekend.

It's a safe bet that all of the positive press and media attention they [continue to] receive this year was well worth the effort and sludge of E306.

Now the question is, can MS and Sony afford NOT to be there if one or the other also pledges support?

It would be funny if every company jumped right back in, basically making this a 3 day strike for a more 'intimate' show.

No, Nintendo was also one of the ones to pull support from E3.

But good to see there will be at least something for next year. Hopefully we don't get canned, hand-picked demonstrations for games. People need to see how a game is really coming along. I'm sure that may annoy some developers to see their games criticized by a large audience, but as long as they listen to that criticism and implement fixes into the game, it would only help them once it becomes time to go gold.

Man, I don't get it. All I hear is complaints about how bloated and "too big" and rediculous E3 is. Then the ESA comes out and says O.K., let's fix it. Then all I hear is OMG! E3 Cancled! End of the gaming industry! Will anyone even show up?

From my understanding it was mostly at the request of the big three that this scalling back even happened. Of course they'll be there! Statements like "Microsoft and Sony have been less decisive in their response" seem to reflect a fundemental misunderstanding of the ESA's intentions for the future of the show.

Its still a long ways away so who knows what will happen in the meantime, but I really don't think that much will change. Smaller booths. Press only. Same show.

"though it certainly would help alleviate the problem of getting trampled by an army of wand-waving nerds (always a plus)."

Why does the gaming media have such disdain for the average gamer? I liken this to the way gaming companies especially MMOs treat thier customers. The superiority complex exhibited buy the higher than thou "good ridance E3 was for us anyway, you low life basement dwellers" gaming media is sickening. Just remeber who butters your freaking bread!!!

I wouldn't necessarily draw that conclusion, what if they wanted the smaller show, achieved it, and now they're onboard.

Although personally, I don't think it was Nintendo either.

But at this point, with the smaller show, no matter who shows, it's just not going to be the same. The whole closed door aspect means we may not have the same level of instant reports and access we had in the past-- which incidentially Joystiq, I truly appreciated!! Found myself totally glued to the site.

I'm almost hoping the majors hold their own shows from now on. That way, maybe it could be held at different locations every year, and have it totally open to anyone. I really think you need to cater to consumers and draw them together.

AntiTimeSink, let me instead ask you why you think the average gamer is a nerd! :)

"AntiTimeSink, let me instead ask you why you think the average gamer is a nerd! :)"

No fair, I asked first :). hey you used the nerd refrence not me. I would argue that the E3 attendees probably are representative of average gamers. Ok granted they might be a little more hard core than average. But I bet the "average" gamer would love to attend the old style E3. So you'd be insulting them by proxy.... :)

Apparently, I must have missed the fine print in video game purchases that stated that if I spent more than a given amount (oh, let's say $2000) on video gaming, I was automatically entitled to attend E3. Because apparently, some people were under the impression that was all they needed to get into a trade show.

But anyhow, I already see how this is going go. Nintendo throws their support behind this early, gets in first amongst all video game companies... and you'll discover who gets their advertising everywhere, who gets the best rooms, who is hyped up heavily...

Nintendo - paving the way to future E3 domination today.

I for one definitely hope we do get some sort of mini-E3 event for our sanity's sake as media. It's already crazy enough that every major publisher holds a pre-E3 event which leaves us running here and there and everywhere for the four weeks leading up to E3 itseld only to struggle to get enough appointments to see them all again in three daysat E3 a few weeks later - but if we lose E3 entirely - then we have to run all over the map trying to keep up with the numerous mini-events. My thought it we'll see the Publishers pull the pre-E3 events, and focus all their attention on the mini-E3 itself. In essence the E3 will become just that - a media only event with the focus on getting as much media attention as possible without the collosal outlay.

I agree with the previous poster - we don't need to slag the fans through the mud and blame them for what E3 has become for the truth is we made it this way. The fans deserve their own events and we've seen a good number of them begin to form in these last two years.

It will be good to see the event become more focused in it's intent. In the end the companies can shift the marketing dollars spent there back into development to ensure the games that ship are actually worth all the hype and stay in business.

I think it's more of Sony and Microsoft who wanted to pull out. I mean Nintendo gained everything they could from E3 06, including much hype, stock rises and most importantly respect, whereas Sony's booth was a ghost town in comparison. I'm sure if anyone it was Micosoft, Sony and EA who were most upset that Nintedo took away a LOT of attention from their booths and therefore felt like it was a waste of a lot of money.

Nintendo had virtually no reason to give up E3 as we know it seeing how they basically stole the show with Wii and DS.

Could you even imagine how horrible it would've been for them if they DIDN'T have thousads of people able to actually play the Wii? esp if their motto was "Playing=Believing"? I think Nintendo just "jumped on board" to go along to get along type of thing.