It has been long said this is the "Make or break" year for E3. And while this is only Thursday morning, I can't help but feel that E3 hasn't made it. There is not a person involved in the gaming industry who doesn't fondly reflect on "the old days". I myself last attended at E305, considered by most to be the best of the best, and the last of a great line. For a multitude of reasons from many directions, things changed, as everyone has known. Now E3 is no longer the fun filled extravaganza, where excessiveness is the norm, and the weight of your presence is measured in the 8 digits and up. He who comes closest to going into the red, without going over, wins.

Now its a conference, a real conference. Spartan, utilitarian setups on the front, lavishly decorated PR conference rooms that get used for 2 hours or so, and that's it. Each of the big players has their little dog and pony show, and then follows it up with a minimal booth presence to show off those wares in detail. Now the reasoning behind this is clear, E3 got too big. The focus was on core industry members and the press, not the thousands of people that got in though loop holes (I'm looking at you Gamestop employees and your girlfriends!). This is understandable, however you need to ask yourself, is the new method even worth it? At the end of the day we are left with a collection of Press Conferences scattered throughout the day in staggered formation, and really, that's it. Why? Could the same needs not be met if the big players (Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo, EA, Ubi, Actilizzard, etc) simply got together and said "Hey, we are all going to be at GDC next spring, or CES next June, or heck, PAX next August, lets put together all this then?". They can simply shift their PR focus back 2 months to GDC, or ahead one to PAX, or all the way to the start of the year for CES. They get the SAME exposure, if not more. They are already footing large bills for these events, and to increase ones presence there would cost significantly less than the overhead and operations costs of an entirely other event. (You need to factor in hotels, airfare, food, travel costs for your entire operations, which is already in play for other events). Really, how hard is it to set aside a slightly larger conference time slot at an existing event, for all of them?

So this begs to ask the big question, even if E3 had "made it" this year, which I don't feel that it has, whats the point even so?