The first time I ever heard about the E3 show was during a CES in Las Vegas when the fledgling electronic gaming industry was still not a multi-billion dollar spectacle that went alongside the movie industry as a revenue generator.. Back in those days there was real opportunity and even at the first E3 you had a real opportunity to “break in” so to speak into the industry.

Well it seems like times have changed. No longer is it a show of “Cinderella” stories where if you had a great game idea and it was reasonably well executed could you break into the industry. Now if you have a game you can’t just bring it to the show and show it off and hope that someone will give you an opportunity and review it. There is a certain protocol and you have to schedule a meeting with a company months in advance.

Gone are the venture capital people that used to come the show floor in droves looking for the next “big game”. What E3 has become now parallels the motion picture industry. A tightly controlled hard to get into even show that is really just a yearly promotional show for the press.. The industry leaders may have forgotten what it is to be a small garage developer and now the term “indie” developer exists if you don’t have a few million in startup capital behind you.

Just like the movie industry, the “studios” control everything including the flow of information out and about. It’s sad to see actually but it does keep certain already there companies who are in control in-place and competition actually looks stifled and due to the enormous sums of money in play here, the words “friendly competition” looks more like “heated” competition. The industry isn’t the infant or even the goofy teenager I remember but now really has become a skeleton of it’s former self. The real magic and the excitement are gone and I believe it’s to the point where real opportunity doesn’t exist and creativity maybe stifled. Yes, technology has improved but creativity? Not so much..

These are just my thoughts having went away from an industry and now looking back again.. The industry in it’s success has lost much of what it has gained..