As far as the games press goes, we really can’t choose. We need to be there or we miss out. But the industry can, technically, and especially when two events are so close together. E3 is about a week away, but Gamescom is in August. To make matters worse, Tokyo Game Show is in September.
Namco Bandai Partners VP, Olivier Comte, says that E3’s return to the old days is bringing the industry back, but feels that they’re going to have to choose between the two events.
“I really wonder how E3 is going to be this year because we seem to have come back on track,” he tells CVG. “I wonder if this year it will be E3 like three or four years ago – a very big event. This is how I feel.
“If this is a case then it’s clear that the industry will have to choose between E3 and GamesCom, because two events within three months that cost a lot of money for all of the publishers will be too much.”
He also says that the US-based show is important enough that some publishers could abandon the German one.
Note that Gamescom had the highest attendance of any game show ever last year (see above image) with over 245,000 visitors and 458 exhibitors, beating out E3’s 203k last year. So maybe this is just Namco not wanting to shell out for multiple events. I can’t say that I blame him. I don’t even know how our company gets all of us out to these events, and we’re just talking about hotels and flights.
E3 vs. GamesCom: Industry must choose, says Namco [CVG]
