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ESA – So the big players have left…

Posted On Monday, May 19th, 2008 By Jay

The inevitable always happens. On July 30th 2006 E3 as we knew, loved, hated and drooled over was finished. This was the beginning of the end for the ESA. For the non-link followers, on this date, all major showers pulled out of the show. In a similar story, earlier this month, the ESA officially acknowledged that Activision and Vivendi cancelled their membership. Just this morning, the ESA confirmed that Lucasarts had cancelled their membership as well. This is troubling news to me.

I wonder what the international impact of losing this trade show will do to the industry? I know Activision Blizzard will be just fine, able to lean on Blizzcon and their marketing budgets. EA as a market leader already has its large audiences. Customers of Madden, Fifa and other sports titles will continue to sell well. The shift is curious. Take 2 has made enough money to continue independently with its successful release of GTA4 (hats off to you Take 2). And Nintendo, continues to sell their franchises on a globally successful scale. What about the small guys? More importantly, what about new gamers?  What kind of advertising will be required to capture their attention?

These concerns are small for publishers. With marketing dollars spent more on general advertising, perhaps the trade shows aren’t needed. Perhaps new audiences find their way to video games in other ways.

In addition, perhaps the services provided by the ESA aren’t as needed anymore. Legal departments, internally developed anti priacy software are common place now. The industry is growing. We’re maturing. We’re starting to walk where before we crawled. When the big players all leave the ESA, I’m curious to see what if anything will replace it.