Squid of Man

Whoah.

Next-Gen are reporting that Doug Lowenstein (Mr. E3) is expected to announce within the next 24 hours that the show is to be cancelled. Gone. No more E3.

What does this all mean? It means E3's time is up. And while it's a bit of a shock to hear (it's like Santa cancelling Christmas), it's usefulness as a central spot to check out the latest and greatest has been on a downhill slide ever since we first saw Sony's rubber ducks.

There's just too much shit going on for it to be worthwhile for publishers and developers, apparantly. And I have to agree. As a gamer and, obviously, a consumer, following everything that was going on was just getting impossible. If you didn't shout the loudest you just didn't get heard. And a lot of good stuff wasn't getting heard.

So no more E3. Where to now? Joystiq have a range of possibilities up, but I see this going one of two ways.

1) We see the emergence of platform-specific mega-events, like the Microsoft X events but writ large. Awful, loud, shiny propoganda rallies, which you have to endure because there will be tons of exclusive stuff that will only be shown there. This is the worst possible option. E3 was bad enough for noise, shouting and crap - imagine how many lies Sony could clock up at their own show.

2) Leipzig, TGS and GDC emerge as three "mini-E3s", spaced out over the year so we get drip-fed major announcements and unveilings across three seperate events rather than forcing them all into one. This is the best option. We still get big shows to look forward to, with the bonus that because there's three of them we may even get a chance to see most, if not all, of what's on offer.

So...yeah. That's it. Very unexpected news, but i've got a feeling it'll probably be for the best, both for gamers wanting to really explore everything that's out there, and for developers and publishers who hopefully can find a better way to get their product noticed.