The new E3: A changing show for gaming industry

LOS ANGELES--The new E3 Media Summit is nothing like last year's show, which was spread throughout Santa Monica hotels, or the old Los Angeles Convention Center shows, which were unlike any other experience in any other entertainment medium. Walking through the halls on Monday, it was like a ghost town. You wouldn't even know there was an E3 happening. There were no posters or banners or Show Dailies or video displays. It was quiet and deserted.

I don't miss those cavernous halls filled with more plasma TVs than you've ever seen before. I don't miss the blaring music or the crowds of gawkers taking video and pictures of booth babes, while clogging up arteries that made it impossible for working journalists to get from meeting room to meeting room. I don't miss those meetings, which never ran on time as journalists had to run from one end of the cavernous convention center to the other all day long. I don't miss the lack of air conditioning in those meeting rooms, either.

Although I really don't think the industry needs an E3 any more, especially in its new smaller form, if the Entertainment Software Association insists on continuing with it, I did like this year's format. The floor of E3 was tiny, but it featured tons of playable games and was very easy to navigate. I spent most of the week at press conferences and then in meeting rooms upstairs, checking out many titles behind-closed-doors. It was easy to make it to meetings on time because rooms were literally next to each other. And the games were front and center, not blaring music or million dollar booths or other destractions.

After all, E3 is supposed to be about the games. And this year the show focused on exactly that. Granted, as a Game Critics judge I'd seen and played a large portion of games early during a one-week stint in San Francisco in May and a separate week in Los Angeles in June, but there were still new titles that made their debut at E3. I was busy filing stories and filming interviews with a crew all week, but I managed to get a lot more out of this year's show than probably any previous show. There wasn't the wasted time getting from one hotel to the next--although I did have several hotel meetings off the floor.

As far as parties, E3 still knows how to put on a show. Electronic Arts had The Who perform in front of a select audience at the historic Orpheum Theater just blocks from my hotel. Bethesda Softworks held a huge party at the Saddle Ranch Bar on Sunset Strip. Ubisoft held a huge shindig, as well. There was even a Blu-ray disc party at the Playboy Mansion to kick off the week (although that wasn't an "official" E3 party). But E3 is supposed to be about the games, and this year, for the first time in years, it actually was.