Are Video Game Shows Dying Out?

Steve Anderson : End Game
Steve Anderson
The Video Store Guy
| The video game industry has gone from a mole hill to a mountain in no time flat, Chris DiMarco is your Sherpa as you endeavor to scale Mount “Everquest”

Are Video Game Shows Dying Out?

The status of E3 has been known for some time. Many have questioned if PAX--the Penny Arcade Expo--is taking the place of E3 sufficient for it to be the new E3. E3 has been rapidly falling off from its previous dominance, but oddly enough, they're not the only one. Reports are suggesting that the Tokyo Game Show is falling off as well.

The last weekend, and part of last week, featured the Tokyo Game Show, but one particularly unnerving event in the whole affair was the comparative dearth of news to emerge from the event. Sure, Sony showed off their new smaller PlayStation 3, but beyond that, there wasn't a lot going on. There were some new titles, but somehow, Earth Defense Force 4 really doesn't match up to Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 in terms of sheer intensity. In fact, one report emerged suggesting that seven out of ten games shown at the Tokyo Game Show were for tablets and smartphones.

With E3 on the skids compared to its glory days, and the Tokyo Game Show showing a lot more slowdown than in previous years--Nintendo and Microsoft didn't even show up--it's enough to make some wonder if, maybe, the concept of the video game show is falling out.

Granted, the nature of the video game industry isn't what it used to be, either. With more gaming moving into portable segments, big booths and big events may not be that necessary. And video game shows are still certainly in wide attendance. E3 was big by any standard and PAX is on its way to the top. But E3 is in decline, and PAX has the added value of being based around a popular webcomic. So all told, this still may be changing the industry as we know it, and that's the essential question.

So, are video game shows dying out? It's still too early to tell. But it's a fair bet that, maybe, more game companies are bringing their prime material straight to the web, and that's changing the industry as we know it.
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