So without further ado here are our candid and semi-educated opinions on how one of Australia's main videogame shows went on its second birthday.
Luke Mitchell - PALGN Writer
Being new to eGames, I have to say that I was impressed with the amount of content on show, specifically from Sony and Nintendo. Unreleased stuff is what we really want to see, and both major companies had them in spades. Shame about Microsoft, but then again Halo 3 always draws a crowd anyway.
One thing that we talked about was that even games that have been out for many months (such as Motorstorm for example) were constantly being played as well, so it's not all about 'the new' for everybody. Just the chance to play games in a big gamer-friendly environment is great, and so it should only get bigger and better next year. Oh, and bigger venue next time please - it was a bit too much like a sardine can on Saturday, and not everyone smells as pretty as I'd like!
This year's eGames brought the rock to the party.
James Gay - PALGN CEO & Founder
I have nothing but good things to say about this year’s eGames. While we’re still waiting to hear the final attendance numbers, I think we can expect a significant increase from last year. There was much more happening on the show floor and lots of big name titles rolled out, including many that were yet to be released. The lack of pre-releases at all previous games shows in Australia has been a major talking point, so I think this was the most significant aspect of the show. I’ve been closely following the Australian expos for the past 3 years and it’s always been a problem for the publishers to put together the resources necessary to display the early code. I’d like to congratulate everyone involved for making it happen this year. It really does put eGames on a platform where it can be compared with other highly popular international game expos.
It was also excellent to see such a huge commitment from all the major publishers. Sony really pulled out the big guns this year with a rather impressive booth that dominated the floor. Nintendo continued their presence from last year with a very similar open booth layout that works particularly well for the Wii. Microsoft dropped the ball a little. While their Master Chief head was nice, it was clear they hadn’t put any particular effort into the presentation with only a couple of playable games on show.
Again, I think everyone involved with this year’s show needs to be congratulated. It’s a significant step forwards for Australia and it’ll be exciting to see how the expo evolves next year.
Daniel Golding - PALGN Writer
eGames '07 offered an interesting array of distractions, ranging from the expected (lots of games, lots of competitions) to the surprising (university presence, intelligent panel discussions). At this stage in the Australian games industry, a show like eGames is almost a given, and it certainly an event we should encourage and support. Apart from anything, it gives the Australian gamers a place and a time to meet up and realise that they are actually part of a larger community, with shared loves and interests. It was amazing to see the variety of people in attendance. The copy of Halo 3 at our booth was a microcosm - we had 25-year-olds who could barely move Master Chief, alongside 12-year-olds who found the hardest skulls without prompting.
Is there room to improve eGames, though? Certainly. Microsoft was almost incognito this year, and the timing of the show means that most of the notable previews hit shelves in the coming days and weeks. eGames 2008 will be a step up if we are looking at games due in January, February, March 2009. As it is, there is little information gleaned from the showroom floor that couldn't already be found on international websites. While it is excellent to see such a wide appeal for the show, eGames must strike a balance between catering for the mainstream consumer and catering for the industry.
The most impressive display at eGames, staffed by our two hottest booth babes.
Matt Keller - PALGN Writer
This was my first eGames, but I was reasonably happy with the show. Obviously I was most happy with the turnout from Sony and Nintendo, who both had a large number of games on display, including a number of yet-to-be-released titles. Ubisoft and EA also had very sizeable displays, though I would have liked to have seen more than games that have been released or just about to be. It also gave me an opportunity to catch up with various people from the industry, both press and publishing. I was particularly impressed by the BioShock presentation on the main stage on Friday - it was really interesting to see how the game came along.
With the show in its formative years, one can't expect it to immediately become a mini-E3 as it was, but I would like to see a bit more of a showing from the local arms of the big publishers. Microsoft's showing sucked - that big Master Chief head was an eye sore, and they surely could have had more than just Halo and Mass Effect on display. What about Atari, Activision, Red Ant, Sega and Take Two? Displays from these publishers were either minimal or non-existent. As Daniel said, it'd be good if we can see some of the Q1 showings - particularly with January and February no longer being the quiet release months that they used to be. The final thing I'd like is if we could get say two hours of media only access on the Friday - if we didn't have as many staff in attendance, we wouldn't have covered everything.
Tristan Kalogeropoulos - PALGN Writer
The second eGames has proven to me that the show is more than a flash in the pan. With crowds on all days that seemed to be increased over last year's and the well fleshed out selection of titles on display, it seems that both the public and the industry have decided to vote together with a resounding ‘yes’ for this event to continue on into the future.
As the rest of the guys have gone on about, it’s a shame that ‘the big MS’ didn’t see fit to grace us with a presence of slightly more substance than an inflatable helmet, but it does go to show that what they’re banking on is great 3rd party support. Unfortunately for them it seems that that Sony stole the show with a hulking great load of PS3’s and some fantastic titles being shown on them. It was hard to turn around without your eye’s passing over one of Sony’s sexy, curvaceous and dark skinned models. Nintendo’s showing was also quite strong, but I think what amazed me the most was that there were people still interested in playing Wii Sports.
I was incredibly impressed by the fact that there were a few gutsy developers showing titles that were clearly still in development (such as Digital Extremes’ Dark Sector), a rare sight indeed within the meagre selection of Australian expos. I hope that we see a bit more of this in the future with games being presented that are a little more than 2 days out from being released. Here’s hoping that next year’s eGames is bigger, brighter and even better.
Sony, getting them hooked young.
Harry Milonas - PALGN Writer
As the naive self-enlisted media producer for the event, I didn't get to play as much as I got to observe. Perhaps that's why I came away with more negatives than positives of my first eGames experience. While the expo as a whole could arguably be growing by the year, it was nevertheless the little things that brought the experience down this time around. eGames 07 was ultimately another case of an Australian videogame event still not quite sure where its footing should be.
Let's get one thing clear - eGames has so far always been about selling the games, rather than any frivolous GameConnect styled industry-related discussion. Which only then makes one wonder why organisers bothered with the likes of the Dissecta panels - panels that could seldom gather more than a handful of audience attendees and relevancy in topic throughout the weekend - when all attendees really wanted were free Super Mario Galaxy branded swag to be thrown at them after a 45-minute PR spiel. Unfortunately, the educational institutions in attendance, hoping to garner interest in their respective videogame courses, copped the same overall disinterest from showgoers.
Indeed, the "keeping up of appearances" in general appears to be the main issue with eGames. As the umpteenth staff member to make mention of this, where was Microsoft? Where were the few games that were listed as on the show floor (I'm looking at you, Mass Effect and Time Crisis 4), but nowhere in sight? Why was there whole sections of the expo taken up by games that in some cases, have been on the market for almost a year now? The expo needs to at least possess the notion of timeliness and synchronisation among attendees and exhibitors alike if its ever going to grow to anything more than a three-day shill for Christmas purchases. But that may just be the very point I'm missing out on.
Luke Van Leuveren - PALGN General Manager
I feel that this year's eGames and Entertainment Expo was a huge success. This year we knew what to expect and the fact there were plenty of games on display that weren't out yet helped to draw the crowds. Sony really pulled out all stops this year and Nintendo's presence was as popular as ever.
On the negative front, it is a little disappointing the expo space hasn't expanded in size and Microsoft's presence was a little poor this year, but these are only minor disappointments that didn't detract from the enjoyability of the show, though the smaller space does mean things can get a little cramped while the show is on.
Overall I feel that the eGames expo is moving in the right direction to becoming a world renowned event.
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If you went along to eGames this year let us know in the forums what you thought of it.
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