The Consumer Electronics Association, which had been considering filling the void left behind by the downsizing of E3 with a similar expo, announced on Tuesday that it would not launch a video game trade show.
The CEA, which operates the long running Consumer Electronics Show, announced yesterday that it had scrapped plans for a video game trade show. The announcement by CEA comes in the wake of the ESA’s revelation of its new E3 plans, and the efforts of the CMP Game Group, operators of Game Developers Conference, to expand its premier show while consolidating other trade shows.
According to CEA senior vice president, Karen Chupka, “Although CEA was prepared to launch a new event, the recent announcement by ESA that it would open its event to both ESA and non-ESA members and would include PC and wireless gaming, led us to conclude that a new spring West Coast event would likely not serve the best needs of the industry. At this point, we will continue dialog with the industry to determine if the need for a broader gaming event exists for 2008.”
The desire for CEA to establish a video game tradeshow is understandable, considering that CES was the primary gaming expo prior to E3. Both the Commodore 64 and the Nintendo Entertainment System made their debut at CES in 1982 and 1985 respectively.
