It looks like there won’t be a major show competing with the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) after all, at least in 2007. The owners of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) have announced that they’re backing off plans to do a gaming event in 2007.
This past summer the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) announced plans to radically downsize its tremendously popular E3 event in 2007. The three-day show had swollen to enormous size over the past several years, and the ESA and its members decided to reshape the event as the E3 Media and Business Summit. It’ll be an invitation-only event in Santa Monica, Calif. in July, 2007.
After the ESA made its first announcement over the summer, the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) said that it was considering launching its own gaming show to fill in the void left by E3’s major shift. The CEA confirmed in a statement late on Monday that it won’t do so, after all.
One contributing factor in the CEA’s decision-making is the ESA’s decision to allow non-ESA member companies to participate in the new E3. ESA members include giants like Activision, Electronic Arts, Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo. Many smaller vendors and mobile gaming makers aren’t involved with the ESA, and were concerned that they wouldn’t be allowed to participate in the new E3.
“Although CEA was prepared to launch a new event, the recent announcement by ESA that it would open its event to both ESA and non-ESA members and would include PC and wireless gaming, led us to conclude that a new spring West Coast event would likely not serve the best needs of the industry,” said CEA’s Karen Chupka, senior vice president of events and conferences. “At this point, we will continue dialog with the industry to determine if the need for a broader gaming event exists for 2008.”
The next CES, scheduled for January 8 – 11, 2007, will feature a new “Gaming TechZone” space, however. The new area will serve as a showcase for vendors who want to show off their gaming technology to the show’s anticipated 140,000 attendees.
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