E3 Live event was a flop with gamers - report
E3's first ever gathering for gamers was a disaster, according to a few attendees.
E3 Live event was a flop with gamers - report
E3 Live was announced in May and was heralded as the E3's first ever gathering for gamers. It was open to the public, running alongside the main expo and ran from June 14 - 16.
The event promised attendees the chance to play games, meet industry personalities, and buy exclusive merchandise, and generated much buzz in the community.
The reality, however, seems to have been a world away to what was described.
Games Industry Biz had a wander around the event and were not impressed.
"When I first arrived, I genuinely questioned whether I was in the right place. But to my disbelief, the small area (maybe the size of two tennis courts) was just filled with a few tents, barely any games, and a bunch of merchandise (t-shirts and the like) being marketed to attendees."
Talking to the other visitors, it became apparent that the general consensus was that the event was a bit of a farce.
"I'm a little disappointed. We weren't exactly sure what it was going to be. We thought we were going to at least play some demos or something...I thought there would be more to interact with. It's free so I knew we wouldn't get much, but I was expecting something..." said one attendee.
"When we found out it was the first public event, we thought, 'Cool we can finally go to something E3 related' because we don't work for any of the companies and we're not exhibitors," he continued, "and I was excited for that but then we got here and we were like 'Uh oh, is this it?' So we got worried and we're a little bit upset."
Over 20,000 tickets were given away on a first-come-first-served basis, and ticket holders spent their time going between tents pitched outside of the LA Live complex.
"All it is is some demo area with Lego and some VR stuff," commented another attendee. "This is really disappointing. It's really small and it's just here. I expected more, at least to play some more. And the VR, I'm not even interested in VR. Me and my son have an Xbox One and we wanted to play Battlefield 1 or Titanfall 2 and we didn't get that opportunity. I was like c'mon man, I didn't come here to buy stuff. I came here to enjoy games."
The ESA really missed an opportunity to cater to a huge demand that exists in the gaming community. The chance for an E3-like experience for those outside of the industry is something we've been clamouring for.
With speculation as to whether the main event is even relevant anymore, they haven't done much to assuage doubts surrounding the subject.
Did you visit the event, or know anyone who did? Are these reports accurate or a mile off? Chime in below.
Be sure to check out our E3 2016 hub for all the news, videos, screenshots, interviews and much more, live and direct for this year's show.