With only around 30 major companies attending rather than 400, and 3,000 attendees rather than 60,000, this year’s E3 video games convention was more for suits than surfers.

Gone was the overpowering music, crowds, booth babes and Hollywood sets of the Los Angeles Convention Center.

There were the usual big presentations by the console makers, but otherwise, the shoreline events in Santa Monica were confined to a handful of press conferences and evening parties and lots of meetings in hotel suites with views over the Pacific.

In truth, anything that reduces the hype and noise in this industry is welcome and executives had chance to express deeper thoughts about the state of video games.

As John Gapper points out in his column, the trend seems to be one of casualisation - making games that appeal beyond the core gamer.

This is despite the console cycle still being in the early-adopter phase where core gamers are seen as the biggest customers. Nintendo’s success in appealing to non-gamers has proved a new console introduction can be the best time to find a new audience.

Sony executives seemed puzzled by all the fuss over Nintendo. They are making games for their core audience with the PlayStation 3, but point out that the PlayStation 2 is still selling in big numbers and has lots of family-friendly titles now it is at a mass-market price.

So if you are currently a non-gamer and looking for family-friendly entertainment, this could not be a better time to invest in a console.

Games featured at E3 like Guitar Hero, Rock Band, Boogie, Skate, Scene It, SingStar and a majority of titles on the Nintendo DS and Wii are easy to play, great fun and can appeal to all ages.

However, come the holiday season, the titles for core gamers will be the ones making the headlines. The holy trinity of Halo 3, Grand Theft Auto 4 and Madden NFL ‘08 are about to bless the industry and likely turn this into a blockbuster year.

July 14th, 2007 in Games | Permalink