E3 Promises Glitz!
With the economy continuing to struggle, the videogame business is still doing pretty solid business, so it would seem they're going to show off by turning E3 back into the lavish spectacle is once was. This doesn't seem like the "let's look successful so people think we are successful" kind of thing, since sales are actually still up. Hudson Square Research analyst Daniel Ernst put videogame sales for the fiscal year ending in March at $28.7 million, up 13 percent, and higher than the $27 million movie business. But how to make it even bigger?
"The thing that would really boost the industry in this traditionally slow period would be a Sony price cut. That would really help right now," said Billy Pidgeon, an independent analyst at Game Changer Research. "If it doesn't happen, I don't think the industry is in for rough times," Pidgeon added. "I do see that, in the fourth quarter, there will be a return to form."
There's going to be tons of new games being shown off at the E3 conference this year, and a few of us are venturing out of the safety of the castle and diving headfirst into the chaos. But the show, which once drew crowds as big as 80,000, has been downsized in recent years to just 5,000. Since that idea tanked, they're going big again. But will all those new games and things like the PSP GO and Microsoft's version of the Wiimote get lost amidst the attempts to pile on the spectacle, glitz and glamor? We'll have to wait and see, but I promise to try and not get distracted by the pretty lights!
E3 Seen Returning To Glitz [Reuters]
Wootini
Posted to Video Games on 1 June 2009
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