‘E3 killed itself’, not competition from Summer Game Fest, says Geoff Keighley.

John Elden Ring

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Summer Game Fest host and producer Geoff Keighley has rubbished suggestions that competition from his rival event was partly responsible for the cancellation of this year’s E3.

Keighley started Summer Game Fest in 2020 after he split from E3, where he previously held its Coliseum live events. At the time, he cited being “uncomfortable” with organiser ESA‘s plans for E3.

In an interview on the latest episode of the VGC Podcast, Keighley was asked how he felt about his reputation in some corners of the internet as “the E3 killer”.
I think E3 sort of killed itself in a way,” Keighley replied. “I understand why people say [SGF killed E3], but I think if anything, we created Summer Game Fest, and I built Summer Game Fest because I saw the wheels falling off the wagon of E3.

As someone who loves that time of year… for two decades, E3 was part of my life since I was a 15-year-old kid. [From] the first E3 in 1995, I went to every show. I loved it and it defined my summer.

He added:

It was so exciting to me, and it was heartbreaking to see that start to fall apart. I think they had a relevancy problem, and then they also had a participation problem over the final years. So yeah, I think the question is, if we didn’t do Summer Game Fest what would happen? I think things would have just kind of really splintered apart this summer.

I get the sentiment around it. It was sad to me that we had to decide to go off and build something new, but we did that all in partnership with the publishers, and our list of partners for Summer Game Fest did not change at all with the cancellation of E3 this year. Everyone we’ve been working with, we’ve been working with for months around Summer Game Fest. So there was a world where Summer Game Fest and E3 would have co-existed, and we had talked a lot to [E3 organiser] ReedPop about that possibility, because they were focused much more on a big trade event, and consumer event, and that’s not what we were doing with Summer Game Fest.

Asked how it felt when it looked like Summer Game Fest and E3 might have been competing for the same pool of new game announcements, Keighley added: “I mean, we never really saw that.

E3 cancelled in 2020, after I’d pulled out, due to the pandemic, and I started Summer Game Fest at home in a spare bedroom, not even knowing what I was really doing – we were just trying to figure out a way to bring news to fans. And then, you remember, there was the digital E3 they did in 2021, which was kind of their stab at, I guess, doing something similar to what we did. And then it didn’t happen last year, didn’t happen this year. So yeah, I never really felt in competition with E3, we were doing something different. We were focusing on a big livestreamed digital show.
 

KnittedKnight

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People coming to realize that E3, as flawed as it was, specially for the platform holders who were being pinched pocket wise is immensely much better than what we have today. What E3 did immensively great is bring the industry together in a show for fans and media alike forcing the competitors in the industry (whether publisher or platform holder) to one up each other with their showcases in order to earn your dollar, stand out, and earn the mindshare. Publishers and platform holders couldn't run and pick and chose when to compete and when to talk... no... they had to either perform or sink - and the beneficiary was the gamer. There is no substitute for that today.

Sometimes you don't appreciate what you have until you lose it.

Geoff's career benefited immensely from E3 going the way of the doodoo. It was literally on the ropes when GT went bye bye.

Cui bono? ALWAYS!

Certain media and personalities.
Publishers.
Platform holders.

Who lost?

Gamers - Consumers.

It's what it's.
 
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On Demand

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There will never be a replacement for E3. You can’t replicate that kind of trade show event.

None of his shows are sufficient.
 

Airbus

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Theres too many videogame events oversaturation kill peoples excitement just packed it all in one show
 
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ethomaz

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Competition is a weird work to use when it was never a competition at all.

I mean nobody watches whatever is called Summer Game Fest.
E3 was good when the big platform holders nad publishers made their show inside it.

Now that the big ones have it own show E3 died... and that is the same reason Summer Game Fest is not and won't ever be in the same backpack of E3 with all big ones.
 

Alabtrosmyster

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Asked how it felt when it looked like Summer Game Fest and E3 might have been competing for the same pool of new game announcements, Keighley added: “I mean, we never really saw that.
The guy was blind if he couldn't see that.
kind GIF


That being said, E3 kind of missed the boat there, they just did not move and the place they had was theirs to loose.
 
24 Jun 2022
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People coming to realize that E3, as flawed as it was, specially for the platform holders who were being pinched pocket wise is immensely much better than what we have today. What E3 did immensively great is bring the industry together in a show for fans and media alike forcing the competitors in the industry (whether publisher or platform holder) to one up each other with their showcases in order to earn your dollar, stand out, and earn the mindshare. Publishers and platform holders couldn't run and pick and chose when to compete and when to talk... no... they had to either perform or sink - and the beneficiary was the gamer. There is no substitute for that today.

Sometimes you don't appreciate what you have until you lose it.

Geoff's career benefited immensely from E3 going the way of the doodoo. It was literally on the ropes when GT when bye bye.

Cui bono? ALWAYS!

Certain media and personalities.
Publishers.
Platform holders.

Who lost?

Gamers - Consumers.

It's what it's.

This post gets it.

The community feels more fragmented than ever, there's more toxicity in general than ever, and part of the reason is because all of these segmented shows just allow for easier bubbles and echo chambers.

So it creates a cycle where fanatics can get even more indoctrinated into console-warring toxicity and be protected while doing so. Plus, like you said, getting everyone under the same roof naturally makes them want to bring their best, it naturally encourages competition which is better for us gamers.

If E3 were still here we would not have gotten that PlayStation Showcase last month, that I guarantee. Likewise if Microsoft's show ends up mediocre, again...if E3 were here they would've at least had a slightly better showing, then.

If Geoff could at least get Sony & Microsoft to host virtual (live and pre-recorded) conferences during Summer Games Fest, work out a deal for the fees, and just have SGF as the hosting platform while Sony, Microsoft (and, if they even bothered, Nintendo) round up the 3P premiers for their respective conferences, we'd have a much better setup industry-wide for these summer events IMHO.
 

AshHunter216

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This post gets it.

The community feels more fragmented than ever, there's more toxicity in general than ever, and part of the reason is because all of these segmented shows just allow for easier bubbles and echo chambers.

So it creates a cycle where fanatics can get even more indoctrinated into console-warring toxicity and be protected while doing so. Plus, like you said, getting everyone under the same roof naturally makes them want to bring their best, it naturally encourages competition which is better for us gamers.

If E3 were still here we would not have gotten that PlayStation Showcase last month, that I guarantee. Likewise if Microsoft's show ends up mediocre, again...if E3 were here they would've at least had a slightly better showing, then.

If Geoff could at least get Sony & Microsoft to host virtual (live and pre-recorded) conferences during Summer Games Fest, work out a deal for the fees, and just have SGF as the hosting platform while Sony, Microsoft (and, if they even bothered, Nintendo) round up the 3P premiers for their respective conferences, we'd have a much better setup industry-wide for these summer events IMHO.
Agreed. Sony's best shows happened when E3 was still a factor. That yearly period where everyone was watching and everyone was going to be there forced Sony to be more vocal and to come with more impressive announcements.
 

Kokoloko

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People coming to realize that E3, as flawed as it was, specially for the platform holders who were being pinched pocket wise is immensely much better than what we have today.

Yep, I miss E3.
We actually had 1 week where the majority of titles for the next few years was shown. And then we had a Tokyo Game show or something.
Since PS left and e3 died, announcements and shows have sucked majorly
 

Thunderstorm__

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E3 was amazing because it was a physical event acting as a hub for the biggest gaming companies and publishers to gather around and host their shows. The showcases there have dual missions of presenting announcements and bringing players and publishers closer together. It's kind of similar to a community event between a producer and customers so the producer can understand more about the community that it serves. And for the players who go there, they have an opportunity to physically and directly interact, discuss, and chat with others who are also gaming enthusiasts like them. These physicalities are strengthened further by the activities that take place during the event. So despite console war being a much bigger deal back then than now, the whole community still seems much more connected. So it's not just about fragmentation but the kind of platform the hosts choose. Everything being digital nowadays is honestly sad and I don't know whether we can actually go back to physicality anymore. Digital events do not and never will, have the spiritual specialness that pervades Physical events.
 
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Box

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I never cared about E3 i juat want to watch some game trailers
 

Yurinka

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The Doritos vulture is happy eating from corpses

file-20230104-105030-wdtrg3.jpg

I mean nobody watches whatever is called Summer Game Fest.
Last year it was viewed live by 27M people

The community feels more fragmented than ever, there's more toxicity in general than ever, and part of the reason is because all of these segmented shows just allow for easier bubbles and echo chambers.
After watching some reactions from even supposed Sony fans here, if I was Sony I'd quit not only from attending to E3, but also from making any Showcase or any summer event at all in the future and spread these trailers and announcements across the State of Plays they have across each year.

But we're lucky that big companies don't take too seriously what a few hardcore guys loudly say in a forum or Twitter and instead look at the wider picture: the reaction of millions of players -taking special attention to the influencer ones- and the effects of these marketing campaigns on their sales numbers. Which often is radically different to what these few hardcore gamers scream.

People coming to realize that E3, as flawed as it was, specially for the platform holders who were being pinched pocket wise is immensely much better than what we have today. What E3 did immensively great is bring the industry together in a show for fans and media alike forcing the competitors in the industry (whether publisher or platform holder) to one up each other with their showcases in order to earn your dollar, stand out, and earn the mindshare. Publishers and platform holders couldn't run and pick and chose when to compete and when to talk... no... they had to either perform or sink - and the beneficiary was the gamer. There is no substitute for that today.

Sometimes you don't appreciate what you have until you lose it.

Geoff's career benefited immensely from E3 going the way of the doodoo. It was literally on the ropes when GT went bye bye.

Cui bono? ALWAYS!

Certain media and personalities.
Publishers.
Platform holders.

Who lost?

Gamers - Consumers.

It's what it's.
To have a giant E3 booth, send there many people from across the world to work in the showcases, interviews and show demos did cost a shit ton of money and caused many people from the company being crunching for months only for that.

Publishers did originally to sign deals with retailers and also to sign developers, and also for PR and marketing purposes. Years later, deals with publishers and developers weren't signed there, they didn't need the event for that, so focused it on PR and marketing.

But later they noticed that this insanely expensive cost wasn't profitable, and that was way more healthy, optimal and profitable to skip E3 and make instead only a stream for PR and marketing purposes, and also noticed it was better to prepare a canned video than to make it live, and that was also better to don't stick to the E3 dates and to make different streams across the year to show the games when are ready.

The publishers get a more optimal and effective usage of their PR and marketing resources, and now control the narrative skipping any boycott or FUD that press may want to do them. While also avoid overshadowing of all big companies having the announcements the same days. The gaming media also kept decreasing their relevancy being replaced by the streamers as influencers.

The players in the past mostly only got announcements packed in a week, now they get way more announcements and trailers and get them across the whole year without needing to wait until summer.
 
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