Best Practices: The Game Professional's Guide to Surviving E3

Electronic Gaming Business, April 7, 2004

To initiate a new series of Best Practices, we ask industry veterans for their hard-learned lessons, advice, and experience on navigating the complicated and sensory-overloaded passes of the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), which lands in L.A. once again, on May 11.

Of course there are multiple constituencies and goals attached to E3. Developers are courting publishers for contracts; publishers are courting retailers for orders, and the press is hungry for exclusive assets. As we heard echoed by many of her colleagues, Alison Quiron, director of global brand management, THQ, says "I always dread E3. It's one of those necessary evils. It is three days of standing on your feet and talking to people you could more easily talk to in their offices. But if you come out of the show with a game everyone is talking about, you know you have something."

To that end, we consulted E3 veterans tied to several of the key industry segments for their best advice and proven techniques for getting something out of our upcoming "necessary evil."

Pre-Show Positioning

"Our secret sauce is, two weeks before E3 we tour the publishers," says Dan Lee Rogers, president, BizDev, Inc., which reps many independent developers. This makes the E3 meeting more of a touch point than an event on which everything is riding for a deal. Since many companies are either headquartered in Los Angeles already or arrive early for pre-show set-up, it is also often possible to come to E3 days or a week early for pre-show appointments so you have the attention of publishing executives when they not hung over...we hope.

Don't forget the non-core press. Increasingly game companies are outsourcing some or all of their PR to firms that have a broader range of contacts who are also now coming to E3. Steve Lux, SVP, marketing, North America, Codemasters, uses Bender Helper Impact and says that for products like his MTV Generator 3, "dealing with an agent with mass market contacts is a much more efficient way to reach Spin Magazine."

The consensus seems to be that the sweet spot for appointment-making is three weeks before the show. Slots filled too early have a tendency to get bumped once an exhibitor gets a better sense of the meetings that are available to it a few weeks out from the show. Smaller companies often try to book earlier than that to secure a space, but when they get bumped later it is often too late to pick up an alternative meeting time with the company's filled slate.

For the press, consider pre-show publisher days as an alternative way to get more substantial mindshare, says Rob Smith, editor-in-chief, Official Xbox Magazine. "It works for us. It gives us better access to the games. It's a good time to get some of the key interviews down." More publishers have been staging these game days in the weeks just before E3, and Smith appreciates that some of the companies are coordinating the dates among themselves to eliminate conflicts.

UbiSoft uses E3 to improve corporate culture and communications, as a reward for some of its employees, says Tony Kee, VP of marketing. All San Francisco-based employees come in for a day of the show and an UbiSoft party where they meet key members from worldwide offices. "It gives employees who work in so many separate parts of the world the chance to meet and interact with one another."

Show Time: Appointments

Manage expectations, says Rogers. With 450 developers in the world vying for half-hour slots among 15 to 20 top publishers over three days, "we try to tell developers not to expect a lot from E3. It is not a conducive environment for pitching their baby. The thing that really impresses [publishers] most is to come in as a solid business person. We try to build relationships rather than pitch products at E3. Show you're a real person, and follow up after the show. That's how deals really come about."

Some publishers concede that E3 is also not the best place to foster publisher\retailer relationships but to touch base with relationships that you will deepen before or after the show. "It is no longer a show where you are writing orders," says Lux. "It is where you are positioning yourself. You have to get in there and position yourself for distribution. It's important to make retailers understand that they can't just support the top three publishers. They need to make sure there is a breadth of product for consumers."

Quirion says retailers are secondary at E3, in part because "we meet with all of our buyers, but I wouldn't say they are the most quality meetings. We are lucky if we get them for 30 minutes. The press is the big audience."

For publishers courting retailers, "you can talk logically about five to six titles" in a half hour meeting, says Lux. When courting press, don't waste time on stuff they have seen. "If it's one title, a half hour - max," says Smith, and that's top line, first secret unveiling. And that's part of the hour you allot for the company."

Divide the meeting room area into sections that serve your various constituencies -- developers, press, retail, etc. It reduces confusion and conflict among various staff and ensures that you aren't "just grabbing a free room" that may not have the equipment you need for your purpose. Lux recommends having an area out of the cubes where tables, chairs and refreshments can be an alternative meeting place and handle any meeting overflow.