ESA's goodbye letter to E3's little heroes
by Ross Miller 
{ Aug 8th 2006 at 8:45PM }
Regardless of how you feel about E3's rebirth, no one is going to hurt more than the little-known developers who had their moment in the spotlight, thanks to Kentia Hall. While little exposure was given to Kentia Hall booths (relative to booths elsewhere), some of the strangest and most innovative sects of the games industry thrived here. So how did ESA notify its lesser-known participants?Game Politics received the following letter via a Kentia Hall exhibitor:
"Dear Valued E3Expo Exhibitor,
As you may have read in the enclosed Press Release, the 2007 E3Expo has been officially cancelled. As the industry has evolved and matured over the past 12 years, the needs of the exhibitors and key attendees have also changed. To address this change, the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) has announced a new event tentatively scheduled for July 2007.
Details of the event have not been finalized at this time, however our vision and goal is to create a more intimate climate for personalized meetings and product demonstrations. The ESA will announce additional details and information in the ensuing weeks and months.
We would like to take this opportunity to extend our sincere and profound gratitude for your past support of this event. It has been exciting and rewarding to see the growth and significance of this industry mirrored on the exhibit floor of the E3Expo through the years. We look forward to many more years of industry growth, vitality and opportunity.
Yours sincerely,
Mary Dolaher
Vice President"
Remember: without Kentia Hall, there'd be no Guitar Hero. It was a showcase for the biggest risk-takers, and while it rarely paid off, the enthusiasm therein is enough to warrant their recognition. With the new E3 Media Festival being invite-only, how many of the lesser-known acts will get to RSVP?
As you may have read in the enclosed Press Release, the 2007 E3Expo has been officially cancelled. As the industry has evolved and matured over the past 12 years, the needs of the exhibitors and key attendees have also changed. To address this change, the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) has announced a new event tentatively scheduled for July 2007.
Details of the event have not been finalized at this time, however our vision and goal is to create a more intimate climate for personalized meetings and product demonstrations. The ESA will announce additional details and information in the ensuing weeks and months.
We would like to take this opportunity to extend our sincere and profound gratitude for your past support of this event. It has been exciting and rewarding to see the growth and significance of this industry mirrored on the exhibit floor of the E3Expo through the years. We look forward to many more years of industry growth, vitality and opportunity.
Yours sincerely,
Mary Dolaher
Vice President"
Remember: without Kentia Hall, there'd be no Guitar Hero. It was a showcase for the biggest risk-takers, and while it rarely paid off, the enthusiasm therein is enough to warrant their recognition. With the new E3 Media Festival being invite-only, how many of the lesser-known acts will get to RSVP?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Kyle @ Aug 8th 2006 9:00PM
Coooooolllld blllooooooded.
epobirs @ Aug 8th 2006 9:15PM
Some good stuff occasionally came out of Kentia but I've always thought of it as the booth space of the living dead.
The one good thing about Kentia was walking around after closing on the last day of the event. A lot of these guys really don't want to drag all of this stuff home with them, so they'd give away product to anyone passing by with a press badge. I think it was in 1996 when this one guy heading back to Hong Kong dumped about a dozen programmable PS2 and Saturn controllers on us.
Lutraphobic @ Aug 8th 2006 9:21PM
"It was a showcase for the biggest risk-takers, and while it rarely paid off, the enthusiasm therein is enough to warrant their recognition."
It's a shame that E3 is canceled, if for no other reason then this.
nick @ Aug 8th 2006 10:00PM
who cares about e3? it's like comicon – just a bunch of hyped-up hogwash. bring on the silent, quiet conferences. hooray!
hey alex @ Aug 8th 2006 10:45PM
I said before this wasn't a good thing. The benefits are greatly reduced, favoring magazine and media outlets, at a time when internet and blogging are making the former less relevant. Game fans are obviously alienated by the change. This coming at a time, when I think you need fans more than ever.
I sincerely believe smaller and independent developers will not receive anywhere near the exposure they have in the past, if at all.
I also question why any major company would still be affliated with E3 (or whatever they're calling themselves these days) instead of just opting for another show or simply holding a conference/show of their own.
notafan @ Aug 8th 2006 11:20PM
What? "Without Kentia Hall there would be no Guitar Hero" ? That's not true. You do know that Harmonix has made games before hand...
cringer8 @ Aug 8th 2006 11:43PM
"...the needs of the exhibitors and key attendees have also changed."
I wonder who they consider "key" attendees.
Ben Hobbs @ Aug 9th 2006 1:00AM
I still don't understand why they just didn't open up E3 to the public and charge an entrance fee, the demand was certainly there, the entrance fee would have lowered the costs of exhibiting and there really isn't a decent consumer video games show for the public on that sort of scale.
The games industry is growing and it makes no sense to start shutting up shop on the most famous US games exhibition.
Troy Gilbert @ Aug 9th 2006 1:30AM
A few of the comments sound understandbly nostalgic about E3, but there's no need to be. I've been going to it, ECTS, GDC and SIGGRAPH for the least 6 or 7 years, and while E3 is the biggest "spectacle," it easily as the least to offer anyone but the most rabid, rabid fanboy. (And they are officially not supposed to be admitted anyway!)
The last two years, in fact, I've only gone to E3 for a day and found it difficult to actually use up that whole time. Sure, I could have wasted five or six hours waiting in various lines for various theatre demos, but they were posted up to the next within the week and the experience was basically the same.
I can see the perspective of the big publishers: they spend an incredible amount of time and money on E3, and for the game teams themselves, preparing demos for E3 are often a huge, huge headache (with very little upside). The deadline for the media has become very, very arbitrary.
Will it hurt the small studios? I don't think so. I can't imagine a studio that would be able to get attention at E3 but wouldn't be able to do the same in the absence of E3. I mean, Kentia Hall wasn't free... for the price they paid to have an E3 appearance I'm sure they could fly all-expenses-paid 10 or 15 games journalists to their studio for a personal presentation (and that would have a helluva a lot more impact).
It will probably hurt the indies that didn't get show space and would rely on networking during the show. But their price of admission wasn't exactly paying the bills, so it's easy to understand why the big publishers and the management were a bit hesitant to consider them.
What I find ironic is the incredible amount of people who bitched and moaned about E3 every year (the noise, the booth babes, the marketing) yet continued to complain about the cancelation. Perhaps if E3 had gotten a bit of respect from *within* the industry it would have remained relevant to the industry?
Phillip @ Aug 9th 2006 1:31AM
All my life I've dreamed of going to E3, now that dream is squashed. Though, I guess this is a better move for the industry. I hope in a few years we'll get to see another industry event of E3's stature.
Sep @ Aug 9th 2006 7:02AM
e3 is dead meat ... next stop is probably Wahington or Tokyo ... it is said because it was always highlight of the year.
OtakuCODE @ Aug 9th 2006 9:02AM
It's pretty clear, to me at least, that the major players in the videogames industry are moving to fortify themselves. Sony and Microsoft found themselves faltering and getting upstaged by Nintendo, someone they thought a near-dead rival in the home console space. They don't want that to happen again, and I believe their support of the E3 disbanding is because of this.
They get rid of an invaluable space for the true lifeblood of the industry, Kentia Hall, because it threatens their tired sequel and movie-license driven multi-million dollar games. Microsoft freezes out indy developers from XBLA for the same reason. They'll tell you to your face that they want quality over quantity for XBLA - the truth is they want to limit the market to offerings from their cronies - established publishers of mediocre sequels.
They seem to think if they kill off all innovation, they'll win... and they are utterly wrong. If they manage to fortify themselves against competition from simple, elegant, and NEW ideas, they'll just kill their own industry. Nobody who plays Spiderman 78: Revenge of the Terrycloth Dishrag wants to grow up to be a game developer, and they certainly don't want to spend their paycheck on that crap.
Ichidou @ Aug 9th 2006 10:26AM
I'd have to agree with #8 in terms of questioning...
Why DIDN'T they open E3 up to the public? Developers complain that it's a matter of money spent vs. money gained at E3, which makes it all the more sensible to charge people for entrance. Heck, even charging them to try out games would lower the lines and get developers some profit; kill two birds with one stone.
Though I'm not sure how journalists would be able to try out games with this little fantasy of mine... I mean, they'd have to
A.) have special booths set up just for them
B.) Have a pass that allows them to cut in line
or C.) Wait like everyone else.
But hey, at least people wouldn't be calling the attendance to an E3 a dream any more than a trip to disneyland.
doles @ Aug 9th 2006 2:55PM
Isnt it technically E2 now seeing how they dropped the "expo"?
drew baker @ Oct 29th 2006 12:05AM
I am so glad to see little kentia getting some rememberances.It will always be
my favorite.I made several friends there,something you couldnt do in the main
hall.It also was the place to see products before they hit retail.And to all of you
happy to see it gone,FUCK YOU.