More E3 Pullouts; ESA President Taking Heat

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1) 2 May 2008 19:30

Andy Chalk

More E3 Pullouts; ESA President Taking Heat

Following news that Activision and Vivendi have pulled out of this year's E3 and dropped their ESA memberships, four other developers and publishers have revealed that they will also be avoiding the conference, with some blame being aimed at the current ESA leadership.

Kotaku has reported that industry heavyweights Codemasters, NCsoft, Her Interactive and id Software have elected not to participate in the 2008 E3 Media and Business Summit. NCsoft claimed that their absence this year, the first in the company's history, resulted from the development cycle of their games and bore no reflection on the ESA itself, but "several industry sources" have said that current ESA President Michael Gallagher is partly to blame for the pullouts.

During Gallagher's tenure, the ESA cut back on lobbying initiatives while simultaneously increasing budgets, and Gallagher himself has come under fire for maintaining a low profile in what was previously a high-visibility position held by Doug Lowenstein. "Lowenstein was a very savvy industry veteran who paid attention to the goings-on in the industry and cared what the community had to say," commented noted industry analyst Michael Pachter. "The new person... whose name completely escapes me because I've never met him or heard from him, is far less knowledgeable and sophisticated about this industry than Doug was and is going to make some rookie mistakes." Gallagher took over as ESA President in May 2007.

Pachter also criticized the timing of this year's E3, saying the July date is "financially inopportune" for Activision and Vivendi due to the timing of their fiscal quarters, although Activision did say it would be holding a separate press event on the first day of E3. The full report is available here.

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2) 2 May 2008 20:11

Junaid Alam

How can you not love Michael Pachter?

3) 2 May 2008 21:14

thebobmaster

Yikes. The ESA is taking a hard hit.

4) 3 May 2008 11:08

ert47

Oh noes!! this is signaling the end of gaming as we know it!!! [/over-reaction]

5) 3 May 2008 11:20

Melaisis

a separate press event on the first day of E3.

Don't they have Blizzcon for that, anyway?

6) 12 Jun 2008 02:41

Therumancer

I don't see why anyone cares? The ESA was a giant shackle that existed because the gaming industry was afraid of indirect censorship due to crackpot lobbyists and such. You know "oh no, concerned mothers have written us tons of hatemail!" or "OMG! protect the children whackos who can picket but can't examine their kid's games are standing outside local Gamestops, and Mall Security is too stupid to throw them out as per mall policy!".

I think we should just go back to the wild west "anything goes" days of games. No ESA, no ESRB, no PEGI. Just designers making the games people want, and people buying them. Parents responsible enough to know that perhaps a game called "Grand Theft Auto" and billed as a crime sim, might have anti-social behavior in it, and Horror games are usually going to be freaky.

Well nothing can help with parental responsibility, so I guess maybe people willing to laugh at them relentlessly rather than pander to them.

Maybe when this all collapses Rock Star can release a virtual seriel killer game along with intense interactive rape/torture scenes. Then they can have a national day where the game will be given out for free (or at a huge discount) and people will be encouraged to hang out at their local Software Stores in anti-social costumes, drink Hot Cofee, and burn effigies of popular Democrats like Hillary Clinton. It could be like a nation wide woodstock for fans of mature games. :)

The bottom line is, if The Escapist is concerned about games, I fail to understand why they see a problem here.

Heck, I'd think Yahtzee would be in the midst of a Joygasm as no kid gloves means that instead of recyclying the same trappings, the new Silent Hill 5 game might not blow chips entirely if they could take off the kid gloves and really set out be weird and disturbing.

I kind of thought "Origins" had it's problems largely because there was only so much they could do with the concept without upsetting anyone. I know Silent Hill 2 was edited heavily from the original concept, largely because certain censors got on the game due to the Demo. This is one of the reasons why I never played it despite rave reviews. I refuse to even look at it until they release a "director's cut" with all of the stuff they wanted to put in, but had to cut.

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