The Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) 2016 has been considered as the biggest trade show of the gaming industry in the United States. Unfortunately, four gaming publishers have ditched their booths at the event.
E3 2016 is expected to lure more than 50,000 people and to generate billions of media impressions worldwide. The annual convention will be held at the Los Angeles Convention Center on Jun. 14 to 16, 2016.
The event, however, had experienced a "midlife crisis" several years ago when the number of attendees dramatically decreased. In fact, there were only less than 10,000 people who attended the 2007 event and only 5,000 press and executives came during the E3 in 2008, Venture Beat noted.
This year, however, E3 2016 might experience a low number of attendees again as four major game publishers decided not to buy space at the event, which include the following:
1. Wargaming
Wargaming has maintained a large E3 booth since 2011. But this 2016, the company chose not to acquire one as they believed that joining the event is quite not a good idea for them.
"From a strictly business perspective, E3 just doesn't fit our current direction," a Wargaming spokesman said, as per Ars Technica. "It's a show that is very centralized on retail product, and as a free-to-play digital download gaming company, we've realized that while the show may be a good fit for lots of other publishers and developers, it's currently not a great fit for us."
2. Disney Interactive
While Disney did not specify the reason why they're not buying a floor space at the E3 2016, Gamespot revealed that the company isn't planning to launch a new Disney Infinity mainline product. Thus, buying a booth seemed useless.
"We're focused on different activations throughout the year that allow us to engage directly with our fans and community," Disney VP of production John Vignocchi posted on Twitter.
Disney, however, will be busy updating its existing Disney Infinity 3.0 with new content and characters this year.
3. Electronic Arts (EA)
EA is also ditching the E3 2016. According to another Venture Beat report, EA will not have a booth at the event but will have private meeting rooms instead, and will be listed as an exhibitor.
4. Activision
Despite choosing not to buy an E3 booth this year, Activision will still be present at the event. As a matter of fact, the company's games will be shown by console manufacturers such as Sony, IGN noted.
"In June, we're going to be at E3 showcasing gameplay from Infinity Ward's ambitious new game, the company said on its official blog. "We're looking forward to sharing exciting new details about the next great Call of Duty game in partnership with our friends at PlayStation. We're proud to be participating in this premier video game event, but won't have an Activision booth on the show floor."
In spite of the absences of some of gaming publishers on the E3 2016 show floor, Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo will lead the event with large, console-pushing booths. While major publishers like Bethesda will somewhat fill the gap left by the departing companies.
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