Lower attendance for E For All Expo 2008

Posted Oct 6th 2008 8:00AM by John Callaham
Filed under: Biz

The second annual E For All Expo is over and the self-proclaimed "North America's premier video game event" actually came away with lower attendance than last year's inaugural event. The show, held at the LA Convention Center, had 15,000 official attendees this year compared to 18,000 for the first edition of the show (the number might have been even smaller had E For All not hosted two pro gaming events organized by third parties).

As they always do the organizers of the show, the IDG World Expo, claim the event was a "true success" despite the fact that only three major game publishers (Microsoft, Electronic Arts and Ubisoft) exhibited at the show. The press release had no mention of any plans for a 2009 edition of the event. Meanwhile our sister site Joystiq has their own impressions of the event. This coming weekend will find a really successful consumer game show being held, Blizzcon, where the $100 tickets for the two day event sold out quickly.

Tags: blizzcon, e-for-all, e-for-all-expo, e-for-all-expo-2008, idg-world-expo

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Heck 15k is pretty impressive for how half-rate the show looked.

...bysmittyPosted at 8:16AM on Oct 6th 2008 by bysmitty

I think timing has everything to do with a game expo, and e for all has had the worst timing of every show i've seen, you NEVER want to do an expo this close to the holidays, since everything is normally announced about 6 months before the holidays, it makes no sense to have an event 1-2 months before the holidays.Posted at 12:22PM on Oct 6th 2008 by Sam

Why is it that no one is saying how bad this event was? I looked all over for some feedback and what people are saying about this years E For All but I guess it was so bad that almost no one even cares to talk about it and say how god awful it wasPosted at 12:42PM on Oct 6th 2008 by Kampfer

^ Well the idea is that the closer it is to release, the easier it is for developers to get polished demos on the show floor. Ideally, the point is to get as many journalists and members of the public to get their hands on the game so they can go out and spread the buzz. Of course with 60k+ people at PAX this year compared to 15k here, why should anyone even bother with this show.

...bysmittyPosted at 1:09PM on Oct 6th 2008 by bysmitty