The DeanBeat: E3 will bring us another installment of the war for the eyeballs

It seems like I’m just finishing up the games that the last Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) promised us, and now the new E3 is going to bring us a whole new batch of blockbusters to get excited about. Indeed, I’ve been playing games like Quantum Break, Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End, Doom, and Mirror’s Edge: Catalyst.

But now I’m about to see a lot more. Mike Gallagher, chief executive of the Entertainment Software Association, the trade group that puts on E3, told me in an interview that we’ll see 2,000 game announcements at the show, including 130 that will appear for the first time. A year ago, the number was 1,600, with 110 new announcements. So this trade show that everybody feared was dying (because Electronic Arts and Activision Blizzard pulled their booths in favor of fan events) isn’t dead yet. Indeed, the game industry is expected to hit or far exceed the $100 billion revenue threshold soon, and E3 is the place where we’ll see all of the trends and games that will be on the radar in the future. And E3 will likely have around 50,000 people, not counting 20,000 fans coming in to companion events. Dead events don’t draw that many people.

The console makers will stir a lot of excitement, as we can expect to see multiple consoles described in some way. Nintendo may sit out the big announcements, opting to talk about the Legend of Zelda, rather than the thing that everyone wants to know about: the Nintendo NX console coming in 2017. But Sony will show off the PlayStation VR headset and the games coming for it when it debuts in October. Sony confirmed this morning it is working on a Neo version of the PlayStation 4 that can handle 4K TV, but it won’t show it at E3. Microsoft is rumored to be showing both a new console, code-named Scorpio, for 2017 as well as a slimmer Xbox One.

Above: Signage at E3 2015.

Image Credit: Dean Takahashi

The big games are leaking out little by little. Square Enix is betting big on Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, while Ubisoft has Watchdogs 2. Bethesda will have Dishonored 2, and Microsoft will show off ReCore.

But E3 has evolved into something that’s more than just a console show.

Gallagher believes that virtual reality will help pump new life into E3. Two years ago, six VR companies exhibited at E3. Last year, it was 27. And this year, 53 VR companies are showing up.

James Iliff, cofounder of Survios, will be showing off his company’s Raw Data sci-fi shooting game, which is still one of the best demos I’ve seen for VR.

“There’s a lot of anticipation around the Sony PlayStation VR,” said Iliff. “That’s going to bring down the costs of VR and eliminate one of the friction points. But it’s all unpredictable, and that’s kind of exciting. I am hoping that VR revitalizes E3.”

I can’t argue with that. But I’m pretty sure that the best games that I’m going to see at E3 aren’t going to be VR games. Rather, I expect to see some awesome console and PC games that are truly worthy of the blockbuster label. EA will be showing Titanfall 2 and Battlefield 1. We’ll see more hands-on of Activision’s Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare and the newest Destiny expansion.

Above: Gamers are engaging at a very high level with E3 2015.

Image Credit: ESA

We’ll see a huge “war for the eyeballs,” as the late Andy Grove, former CEO of Intel, once described the attention battle. Gallagher says that 75 percent of the top social media personalities will be at the show. YouTube Gaming (led by stream host Geoff Keighley) will duel with Twitch for the livestream audience. Facebook will be there in force to promote use of its livestream videos. The influencers will be out in force, streaming and screamng their enthusiasm for games.

I’ll be among 3,500 members of the press at the event. And companies will be measuring exactly who gets the most attention on the Internet on platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. By the end of it, E3 will probably generate more than 60 billion impressions, which was the number of estimated impressions a year ago.

The mobile companies are creeping into the show, and it makes sense since mobile has become the world’s largest gaming market. About 90 mobile game companies will be at the show, compared to 70 before. That’s a very small slice of mobile, but it can help E3 make up for some of the big booth departures, which include Disney and Wargaming.

I am very much hoping that E3 endures. That’s because the center must hold. E3 is a great carnival, a kind of neutral ground where the companies that battle each other come together for a big festival and try to shout each other down.

“I love how the companies individually manage building buzz into the show,” Gallagher said. “We have some great announcements from Ubisoft and Microsoft and PlayStation and others, teasing what they have in the pipeline for E3. When you have a game like Uncharted that came out this month and you look at the artwork that goes into that, or the success Bethesda had in the mobile space by announcing Fallout Shelter on the stage at E3, that gets you excited for the things this week that we don’t know about. All sorts of rumors swirling. That’s part of the fun. For you I’m sure it’s a huge tapestry to paint on.”

Yes, indeed. I’ll be writing up a storm with a team of five other GamesBeat writers at the event. Keep watching for our posts during the days ahead.

Above: E3 2015

Image Credit: Dean Takahashi