My, my! I can hear it already! "Another issue?? Already!!? It can't
be!" So, what to pontificate about this issue?? Hmmmm.. well, let me predict
the impending death of the long-standing Consumer Electronics Show, at
least one of them per year will bite the big one. I write this literally
hours before I head out to the 'on-a-roll' Computer Games Developer
Conference in San Jose, CA. This conference/show is growing by leaps and
bounds, thanks to the boundless energies of Chris Crawford and his crew,
genuinely interesting things to talk about and listen to, and an
opportunity to actually sit down instead of standing up all day and running
from booth to booth. Aaaaahhhhhhh..... C.E.S. has experienced the first
major crack in the cement - Sega of America has pulled out of summer C.E.S.
They had a booth with it's own area code almost, so this one will hurt.
So, the floodgates have opened. Who's the next to pull out? Electronic
Arts will also not have their usual giant booth, opting instead for a small
casual, press room only. It's only a matter of time before Nintendo does
it's vanishing act too, and with that, *poof*, that's the end of the
entertainment/games side of C.E.S. There isn't enough on the other side of
the fence (stereos, radar detectors, boom boxes, etc.) to cause the
industry to pay the exorbitant rates the E.I.A. is charging for space, so
watch for it to come tumbling down. In its place is the upcoming new
show in Atlanta, once a year, called the Electronic Entertainment
Exposition (E-cubed?) which will ultimately replace C.E.S. Likely to be
scheduled in April, also for the trade only, but come at a time of the
year that makes a LOT more sense.
So, there you have it. I've rambled on again about something most of you
don't give a rat's butt about. Hey, remember how much you paid for this.
;-)
Thanks for reading Game Bytes.
Ross Erickson Editor/Publisher