E for All, All for Naught

by Michael Geslani on October 21, 2007 at 4:21 am

For the last time, I’m not happy to be here, this smile is sewn on!

Two days is the amount of time we’ve spent here at E for All and frankly, that is more than enough time to view and play all the games at this expo. The Electronic Arts demo booth had plenty of playable video games, but when asked for some press material we were told, “ … we didn’t bring any because we thought the press wasn’t going to come here,” said an EA employee.

That was pretty harsh. The expo is for the consumers to play video games before they come out, but that just doesn’t seem like a valid enough excuse to NOT have any material ready for the media, and it wasn’t just EA that came unprepared, other companies also seemed to care less about the press in attendance.

This was a consumer expo, and memo went out months ago, however the only companies that seemed like they got it were Nintendo and Konami. Excluding those two, the layouts for booths were terrible and the representation was more or less non-existent.

The first thing I did when I arrived was interview the President & CEO of TN Games, Mark Ombrellaro. The company developed an innovative peripheral 3rd Space Vest, which allows the player of a 1st person shooter or racing game to feel impact throughout his or her upper torso.

Our group then had an informal sit down with Metal Gear Solid 4 Assistant Producer Ryan Payton. Konami’s MGS4 looks to be Playstation 3’s most anticipated game of 2008, and its expo presence reinforced that. Ryan was great, and Konami from an overall standpoint impressed us as well, as they showcased their products and made information about their company and games easily accessible to consumers as well as the media.

Next up we made our way to EA’s Rock Band stage where Anthony Niven, Andrew Podolsky, and I got to finally rock out to Jet’s “Are You Gonna Be My Girl” and Nirvana’s “In Bloom.” Great game, but it will undoubtedly be one of the most cumbersome setups in your living room’s history.

THQ and Namco represented, but didn’t pick up as much of the crowd as Nintendo or Konami. There were plenty of other exhibitors like Intel and HP showcasing the latest computer technology, but it wasn’t enough to convince me that it was time for a $5,000 upgrade.

Overall, the expo didn’t seem to make much of an impact on consumers, and was definitely not worth the price of a 4-day pass, as it took us less than two days to see everything the 1st time expo had to offer.

In closing, it was a great opportunity for the smaller companies and start-ups of the world to gain exposure (assuming they came prepared) but the big players, outside of those mentioned here, just didn’t seem to give a rat’s ass.

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