Say Goodbye to the Electronic Entertainment Expo as we know it.

The video game industry was hit hard with surprising news earlier this week. From E3Expo.com:

ENTERTAINMENT SOFTWARE ASSOCIATION ANNOUNCES EVOLUTION OF E3EXPO FOR 2007

Washington, DC (July 31, 2006) — To better address the needs of today’s global computer and video game industry, the 2007 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3Expo) is evolving into a more intimate event focused on targeted, personalized meetings and activities, the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) announced today.

“The world of interactive entertainment has changed since E3Expo was created 12 years ago. At that time we were focused on establishing the industry and securing orders for the holiday season,” said Douglas Lowenstein, President of the ESA, the trade association representing U.S. computer and video game publishers and the owner of E3Expo. “Over the years, it has become clear that we need a more intimate program, including higher quality, more personal dialogue with the worldwide media, developers, retailers and other key industry audiences.”

The new E3Expo will take shape over the next several months. As currently envisioned, it will still take place in Los Angeles, described by ESA as a “great and supportive partner helping to build E3.” It will focus on press events and small meetings with media, retail, development, and other key sectors. While there will be opportunities for game demonstrations, E3Expo 2007 will not feature the large trade show environment of previous years.

“E3Expo remains an important event for the industry and we want to keep that sense of excitement and interest, ensuring that the human and financial resources crucial to its success can be deployed productively to create an exciting new format to meet the needs of the industry. The new event ensures that there will be an effective and more efficient way for companies to get information to media, consumers, and others,” said Lowenstein.

Additionally, the evolution of the video game industry into a vibrant and expanding global market has led to the creation of major events in different regions, such as the Games Convention in Leipzig, the Tokyo Game Show, and company-specific events held by Sony, Nintendo, Microsoft, and others around the world. As a result, Lowenstein said, “It is no longer necessary or efficient to have a single industry ‘mega-show.’ By refocusing on a highly-targeted event, we think we can do a better job serving our members and the industry as a whole, and our members are energized about creating this new E3.”

Additional details about the new E3Expo event will be forthcoming in the next few months.

The ESA is the U.S. association dedicated to serving the business and public affairs needs of the companies publishing interactive games for video game consoles, handheld devices, personal computers, and the Internet. ESA members collectively account for more than 90 percent of the $7 billion in entertainment software sales in the U.S. in 2005, and billions more in export sales of entertainment software. For more information about the ESA, please visit www.theESA.com.

I have to admit, this news does come as unnerving. I’ve been catching up on the latest news on this recent development at IGN and GameSpot, and I’m glad to say at least some of the guys over there do support the fact that journalists like myself should continue to attend the event. I don’t think it’s my place to say whether or not the ESA’s decision is right or wrong, but even though I think what they are trying to do is for the best, I’m a firm believer that the video game industry needs an event of such magnitude in the Los Angeles Convention Center. New reports coming out say that the “new E3” will be called the E3 Media Festival and will most likely take place in hotel board rooms in the city. Though I don’t currently know Midway Games official stance on the downsizing of this event, I don’t see yet how this new event will be beneficial for them. At least for the Mortal Kombat franchise anyway. Midway Games has continually throughout the years used the E3 convention and Mortal Kombat Online to help gain awareness of the games. With this new format, and the fact that they (ESA) seem to want to drive away the online blog and fansite journalists from the event, I admit I’m a little worried on how that will change things for my website. Midway Games throws their own mini-conventions called Gamers Day, to which many other publishers also have during different times of the years. My best guess is that if the ESA really stays with this watered-down E3 format, Gamers Day events like Midway’s will become much larger due to the fact that something will have to replace all of the excitement and energy that gets the word out on their new products. Sure they can still make press releases and the like at this new boring E3 Media Festival, but it’s just not the same.

This obviously changes our plans for next May as we were all planning on covering possibly Mortal Kombat 8 at next year’s convention. The event has been moved to July, and now that they are scaling back from the normal 60,000 attendees, to a much smaller 5,000, who knows if we’ll even be allowed to do our job at the event anymore.

So I guess this means no more photos of yours truly with booth babes. Well, at least I was privileged enough to attend the Electronic Entertainment Expo in 2004 and 2005.