From Porn to Corn: E3 Slams Door on Mobility

If you build it, they will come - or at least that's what Kevin Costner was told before he mowed down a perfectly good corn field to build a playing field for some long-gone ball players.

This was sort of the tactic taken recently by the E3 gaming people as they launched their revamped and remodeled E3 Media and Business Summit event in Santa Monica earlier this month. The idea was to bounce back after a rather severe housecleaning the previous year that eliminated exhibitors who relied on scantily-clad women and suggestive gyrations to attract video game players and distributors to their wares.

The result was a more homogenized, much more serious and (some say) very boring gaming event that was a mere shadow of it's former self. IDG Expos hopes to take advantage of this tactical weakness as it debuts it's own EforAll event this October in Los Angeles. The effort is spearheaded by Mary Dolaher, the former director of E3 who was responsible for putting the brakes on the suggestive cakes and frosting which had tainted the original event. Helping her in this effort is an ex top video game honcho who is determined to bring gaming excitement back into the exhibits arena - being billed as a mecca for the 'serious gamer'.

In any case, the new and improved E3, in all its glorious wisdom, decided to shut its doors on mobile gaming companies by keeping them off the oh-so-restrictive invitation list. Interesting, considering the mobile gaming and entertainment market is expected to bump the $11B range by 2011, according to analysts. As a result, these shunned mobile vendors packed up their wares (easy, since they are portable!) and went across town to hold their own confab - called Mobile Games Insider. The group's organizer said about 150 or so executives shuffled over to a meeting spot on the Santa Monica beach to gossip and exchange business tips and leads.

Our insiders tell us the actual crowd that turned out was much more modest group. But, the point is that E3 shut the door on what will quickly become the future of the gaming industry. Companies like Sony are pushing wireless gaming as a growing trend and developing systems to back up that claim. Even popular gaming systems like Guitar Hero have gone wireless and mobile. Everyone is cutting the wired cord while the E3 Media and Business Summit seems to have cut off its own umbilical and chance of future growth and survivability.