Activision Blizzard bows out of E3 [updated]
Filed under: Events, real-world, MMO industry, News items
Do you hear that? That's the sound of a thousand journalists' voices screaming out before suddenly being silenced. Activision Blizzard has announced that it will not be attending E3 2008, but that's not the reason for all the sudden, ethereal screaming. The cries of pain originate from the second part of the announcement: Blizzard Activision will be holding their own press event on the first day of E3. Time to make your choice, gaming journalists.
Update: It turns out that Blizzard's non-participation is part of something bigger: Activision and Vivendi have completely pulled out of the ESA.
Update 2: We've contacted by a representative of Blizzard entertainment requesting some corrections. He pointed out that the merger hasn't yet gone through yet, and that they actually have no intention of attending the event at this time.
Update: It turns out that Blizzard's non-participation is part of something bigger: Activision and Vivendi have completely pulled out of the ESA.
Update 2: We've contacted by a representative of Blizzard entertainment requesting some corrections. He pointed out that the merger hasn't yet gone through yet, and that they actually have no intention of attending the event at this time.




















Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Dass said on 11:49AM 5-02-2008
Normal its the day before but like Sony, Nintendo and M$ already put there press event there they have to go for the first day... Anyway the press events are the best bet the E3 sucks but press events rule :D
I always love the Nintendo one :)
Reply
T said on 1:12PM 5-02-2008
English. Do you speak it?
GRT said on 1:58PM 5-02-2008
So Massively, since you're the professional journos and everything, can you explain to us what the real-world significance is of them pulling out of the ESA?
Reply
So sorry said on 2:46PM 5-02-2008
It's called massive ego. Seems blizzard has it in spades now. Once they realized the could print money by creating content in an MMO every 9 months it was all over.
Reply
Colin Brennan said on 1:35PM 5-03-2008
Sure, it may seem as if Activision-Vivendi pulling out of the ESA has no real world impact on you, but it has a very, very real impact on how people here in the industry perceive the organization.
Long story short, the video game industry is very interconnected. The way everyone meets up at the Game Developer's Convention should show you that - as everyone swaps tips and tools of the trade in an effort to make games better. If you haven't visited Gamasutra (http://www.gamasutra.com) then you're also missing out on seeing the industry communicate with one another. Gamasutra lets developers cover their own problems, discuss postmortems of games, and generally pass information around.
For a development company to pull out of the industry's foremost industry-only trade show (E3) and to simultaneously pull out of the organization that fights for the industry's first amendment rights and protecting intellectual property (ESA) it's basically like giving the industry a certain finger on your hand. You're attempting to tell everyone that you are better than the rest of the workforce, and you are the unique snowflake in a sea of sameness.
Please excuse me, I find this to be complete bull. Activision-Vivendi is destroying the very awesome connection between developers with their ego. And by beginning to destroy that connection, we may begin to see a severance of communication between developers, which would be a huge, huge no no for the consumer.
Think of it this way... you have an entire community of dentists. The dentists get together and share tips and trade information with one another, in a hope to keep everyone in the organization in tip top shape with the latest tools and rights. This way, every dentist is doing their best to improve the teeth of the patient. Obviously, this relationship is benefiting the patient in the end, as they're getting quality service.
Then, some smug dentist walks in and quits the organization. He neglects to give a reason, but everyone knows it's because he's the best dentist around and he gets more patients than anyone else. He goes off to continue working on teeth, but without the backing of the rest of the group. Perhaps he misses the memo on the newest drilling mechanism? What does that mean for you, the patient?
Even worse, others begin following his example. He's the best, so why shouldn't I do what he's doing? Obviously he wouldn't be doing it if he wasn't right. Others start to leave the organization and hole themselves up in their little corners. We begin to see a lack of communication between dentists, for fear of passing off tradecraft to an opponent. Who suffers? The dentists? Sure, they suffer in skills. But who suffers more? The patient.
Reply