We all know that the mecca of the Electronics Entertainment Expo, or E3, is for the world of gaming and the future of the industry. With the most major announcements and debuts of games and innovations. But it has always been an industry thing. Access to the public has been little to none. It is always by invite only for the industry leaders and big shots.
We really never started getting into it as a public until it was televised really. It was one of those things that were just held in secret and then we got all of the announcements after. I really got my first look into the world of E3 until G4 began doing coverage back in the day. Wow, that’s back in the day now? But I digress, there has been much change, they do now allow access to the public. It is still by invite only and there really have not been many of those invitations given out.
If you take a look at the chart above gathered from the Electronic Software Association, ESA, the attendance for E3 peaked in 2005 at 70,000 attendees but after that it hasn’t been the same. 2007 and 2008 were horrible for the Expo. With that being said, as you can tell, adding more of the public may be the best step for them at this point. Well as attendance began to rise in 2009 and up that was more of an influx of the public invitations. With those numbers looking as bad as they were, they were actually done on purpose in 2007 and 2008. That was a move in the venue to Santa Monica. But the contract with the LA Convention Center has been holding strong. It looks to be coming up in 2016, so we will have to see where that takes us from this point.
But to combat that and show that E3 is basically THE Expo of the year for the gaming industry, they are boosting the invitations sent to the public this year. They will be allowing 4,000-5,000 non-industry guest this year. No, nobody from Geek Street got the golden ticket. Don’t worry, one day we’ll be cool enough. But with the contract coming up this attendance information and this boost in invitations to the public plays a crucial role in the future of E3. Since it’s not a traditional convention where people buy tickets and the revenue is grown by the vendors and other ways, a big majority comes from private funding and donations to the ESA.
With all that has transpired over the last few years. Now is about as good as ever a time for this E3 to rock our socks. With more invitations that will bring more funding to keep the larger crowds. This will be a big year and I can’t wait for the show!
SOURCE: Polygon
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