e-for-all-expo-2008 posts

Earlier today we reported on the resurgence of the large trade show version of E3 for 2009. That event will be handled by IDG World Expo (who also handled the two smaller invite only E3 events for the ESA). But what about the fate of IDG's own consumer game show E For All Expo? The event has not received the kind of publisher support that the old E3 or the current Penny Arcade Expo has received and this year's event, held just a few weeks ago, only brought in 15,000 attendees.

Big Download contacted IDG World Expo for comment and received this rather cryptic response that's attributed to its CEO Mary Dolaher: "We want to thank all of our E for All partners for their support, and we encourage E for All exhibitors to participate in the E3 new event, which we believe will meet their needs as well as those of the industry at large. IDG World Expo is very pleased to be partnering with the ESA on E3 and continuing to play a central role in that important industry event. We look forward to furthering our contribution to the success of the video game community."

While that statement doesn't state flat out that IDG has decided to finally put E For All Expo to bed, the fact that IDG is encouraging "E for All exhibitors to participate in the E3 new event" doesn't sound promising for the future of the show. We will keep you updated.

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.

Today is the first day of the 2008 edition of the E For All Expo, the self-proclaimed "North America's premiere video game event." to be held at the Los Angeles Convention Center. The first event, held in 2007, was heavily hyped beforehand with the expo's organizers, the IDG World Expo, predicting in interviews with their CEO that they were expecting between 20,000 and 30,000 attendees. In the end the event only brought in 18,000 attendees and only five major game publishers exhibited at the event.

This year's edition hasn't gotten nearly as much hype as the inaugural event, possibly because there's even less participation from the actual game industry than last year. Only three major game publishers (Microsoft, Electronic Arts and Ubisoft) are scheduled to exhibit at the event, compared to last August's Penny Arcade Expo, which had over 20 publishers showing their upcoming games. Furthermore, the 2008 edition of E For All will be a three day event as opposed to the 2007 show which stretched over four days. Even the venue itself has gotten smaller. The 2007 event was held in the LA Convention Center's large South Hall while the 2008 show is being held in the building's West Hall which is about half the South Hall's size.

You can add yet another company trying to make it in the rather crowded PC gaming mouse market. France-based Nova Gaming has announced that it will enter the US market this November with the Slider X 600 gaming mouse and will also sell a mouse pad to go along with it.

The Slider X 600 gaming mouse will feature eight programmable buttons, three programmable mouse profiles, up to 3200 dpi sensitivity, "super-glide ceramic feet and five different color illuminations for $99.99. The Over Drive mouse pad will cost $39.99 and features and over-sized ceramic 12,000 dpi surface. Both products will be show at next week's E For All Expo event.

The line-up of events for next weekend's E For All Expo at the LA Convention Center continues to grow and today the organizers announced that the IndieCade festival of independent games will make an appearance at the show. Over 20 indie games will be shown at the event and many of the games' developers will also be on hand at the show.

IndieCade is preparing to announce the winners of their festival the weekend after E For All in Bellevue, Washington and our sister web site Joystiq has been running a week-long series that showcases the 26 finalists that are eligible for the awards. All of the winners have downloadable demos or the full free game that you can grab right here at Big Download..

We are now less than 10 days away from the 2008 edition of the E For All Expo consumer game event and today its organizers at the IDG World Expo sent over an update on some new activities that will be at the show. E For All Expo will be held Oct. 3-5 at the LA Convention Center.

The event will have what organizers are calling a "gaming bootcamp" on Oct. 4 "to provide an introduction on the world of video games from basic "how-to's" to gaming terms to what's new and next in games." Also the LA Unified School District will send up to 600 high school studios to the show where they "will obtain a deeper understanding of video games and how they can be incorporated into their future careers." As we have reported previously, the game industry itself has taken little interest in E For All as only three publishers (Microsoft, Electronic Arts and Ubisoft) have announced plans to exhibit at the show this year.

Earlier this week the organizers of the upcoming 2008 edition of the E For All Expo announced plans to host a children's film festival which to us is pretty far away from the event's theme of being "North America's premiere video game event." Today the organizers announced something right in line with their event as they will be bringing in several champs of classic video games to meet and play with attendees.

Among the video game champions coming to the LA Convention Center on Oct. 3-5 is Steve Wiebe, made famous by the documentary King of Kong. Wiebe will attempt during the show to break the current Donkey Kong record that's held by his King of Kong rival Billy Mitchell. Also appearing is Todd Rogers, considered the first paid professional video game player. Rogers will play the classic game Dragster at the event and will give $100 to anyone at the show who can bet him in the game. He will also give $10,000 to anyone who can beat his world record in Dragster during E For All. He has held that record since 1980.

As we have reported previously only three major game publishers (Microsoft, EA and Ubisoft) are currently announced with plans to exhibit at E For All this year.

E For All Expo builds itself in its own press releases as "North America's premiere video game event." However, after failing to get most game publishers to participate in the Oct. 3-5 show in the LA Convention Center the organizers, IDG World Expo, are apparently trying some new tactics...like hosting a children's film festival.

Yes, you read that correctly. E For All will host the fourth annual Los Angeles International Film Festival during the event, which will have over 70 animated, live action and documentaries planned along with basic animation workshops. Mary Dolaher, the head of IDG World Expo, states that the film festival will provide "show attendees with access to an even broader range of creative entertainment." As we have reported previously only three major game publishers (Microsoft, EA and Ubisoft) have announced plans to exhibit at E For All this year.

We've been waiting for all of those "further announcements" that IDG World Expo have promised are coming about E For All Expo 2008 but in the meantime one of the major exhibitors at last year's inaugural edition of this consumer game event has decided to bow out this year.

That company is Nintendo who arguably made the show a lot more interesting than it would have been otherwise via demos of (back then) highly anticipated games like Super Mario Galaxy and Super Smash Bros. Brawl. However, GoNintendo has now gotten word from Nintendo's PR rep that, "Nintendo has chosen not to participate in E for All, as it did not fit into our plans for the year. "

Meanwhile the official expo web site is showing that Ubisoft is now an exhibitor at the show. Our PR rep at the publisher told us a few weeks ago they were not planning to attend but apparently they have had a change of heart as that same rep has now told us that they will be showing Far Cry 2 and EndWar at their booth. Ubisoft now joins Microsoft and Electronic Arts as confirmed major game publishers who will be exhibiting at E For All 2008. The event is still scheduled to be held on Oct. 3-5 at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

Penny Arcade Expo is now well underway in Seattle and the two men who came up with the annual gaming fan event, Mike "Gabe" Krahulik and Jerry "Tycho" Holkins, wasted no time in an interview with Gamespot taking shots at the upcoming E For All Expo scheduled for LA on October 3-5. Big Download broke the news earlier this week that E For All organizers have had issues getting most major game publishers to exhibit at the event, while PAX 2008 is featuring over 20 major game publishers along with a large number of independent developers.

Krahulik, after slamming E For All's design choices for wallpapers, stated, "It's not even that we're so awesome; it's that everyone else is an idiot. They don't get it. It's not hard. If you play games and you love games, it's not hard to do this. But when you look at something like that, you just think, "How can I take any pride in winning?" They're just stupid. They don't know what they're doing."