E3 2003: Summary & Pictorial
by Jason Della Rocca
This year's E3 went down as the biggest on record. Some 62,000 media and industry types descended upon LA to take in all the gaming goodness. On the whole, looking around at the games on display, one cannot but be amazed at the visual quality and overall production values of games today. Yet, it is always hard to get a real sense of how fun/good a game is given the constraints of show booths, pre-release versions, etc... Still, I must say that the Half Life 2 demo was beyond belief. However, as has been noted in many previous rants, you certainly get the sense of licenses dominating the show floor as publishers look for a potential silver bullet for success.
I must say that this was the noisiest E3 ever - both in terms of decibel level, but also in terms of "distractions". The US military was quite visible, sending in Blackhawk choppers to woo the crowds. And, you know something's not right when Tecmo is proud to claim they got their booth shut down after too much excitement over their Dead or Alive girly show... There seemed to be a rise in booth babes, celebrity activity, decked out sports cars and other such things to keep you attention away from the games...
On the whole, the vibe was pretty good during the show, despite some of the ongoing negative attention the industry receives. During the E3 media briefing, ESA president Douglas Lowenstein covered some of this concern over violence and other issues facing the industry, as well as going into the successes and recent statistics on parental views of games.
Despite the increased attendance, the conference and workshop portion was kinda flat. Despite a great line up of speakers, most people were understandably preoccupied with the expo. Still, my session on growing a career in the game industry was well attended and provided some good insights (eg, many established companies will not hire you without a relevant university degree). Also, the E3 organizers were very kind in letting the IGDA's Business Committee distribute copies of the recently released Game Submission Guide to attendees of the pitching and business workshops. Finally, journo gadfly Justin Hall put up a nice summary of a session exploring the maturing gamer.
On the party front, Sony had a massive event as usual - hosting some 5000 people at their LA-based Center Studios lot. Otherwise, most parties and social events were smaller in scale, yet potentially more rewarding as you did not have to fight all those distractions...
Here are some shots taken during E3 2003 (all people identified from left to right):
On first approaching the LA Convention Center, it would appear as if it
crossed through a time warp...
The US military was out to impress the E3 crowd with their REALLY expensive
"toys". Admittedly, it was indeed impressive to see the Blackhawk
chopper pull up and see troops zip-line down!
The boys from Quazal (Sylvain Beaudry, Martin Lavoie, Mike Drummelsmith
and Claude Brisson) spend some quality time with Liz Wakefield (IGDA)
on the opening night.
Warren Currell (Sherpa Games) presents the findings from the IGDA's Game
Submission Guide (of which he managed the project), to a special pre-E3
meeting of Canadian developers hosted by the Canadian consulate.
John Carmack talks graphics during the E3 conference program...
...meanwhile, Wired hosted a party to celebrate the release of "Masters
of Doom", which covers John's story (id, Doom, Romero,
3D, etc). Here, Wired editor-in-chief, Chris Anderson chats with author
David
Kushner.
Online/web game developers Margaret Wallace
(Skunk Studios), Eric Zimmerman (gameLab), Daniel James (Three Rings Design) and
Kate Connally (Shockwave) take in the LA sun during the Wired reception.
Attack of the bloggers: Justin
Hall, Gonzalo
Frasca, Jane
Pinckard, Wagner James Au,
William Huber
The Women in Game Development Committee held an
informal breakfast gathering one morning. Not pictured: the male lurkers
sitting at the next table
(including me ;-)
Interestingly enough, the police officers on hand (for security reasons)
seemed to enjoy the games on display at the Rockstar booth.
The UK government has been very
supportive of their game industry. Their
big UK State
of Play pavilion was a good example of this.
Foo Fighters performing at the Sony party. Very loud!
Thousands of party-goers take in the performance.
Meanwhile, VIS Interactive's Chris van der Kuyl, Barclay Dakers and Paddy
Burns enjoy the munchies.
Vicarious Visions' Tobi Saulnier, Steve Gleitsmann and Karthik Bala at
the Sony party.
Kudos to Sony for putting out something innovative, but looks kinda like
the stuff from the Indie Game Jam...
Valve's Gabe Newell understandably happy with their Half Life 2 demo.
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