| June 07 |
Dave Mirra BMX
|
| June 07 | PuzzleBall |
|
June 07 |
Shrek the Third |
|
|
...cont'd | |
Written by Phil Thompson |
Let us say, for example, that Nintendo dished out four-and-a-half
million dollars on that booth. That's $4,500,000, or around
£2,400,000. Now think to yourself. How many trucks could they buy with
that? Let's say $200,000 a truck. That's twenty-two
trucks. Now, for $4,500,000 they could purchase twelve trucks, at a
grand price of $2.4 Million, and kit each one out with Wii and DS
systems. They could drive them round the country, stopping at various
festivals and other events. A week of that would gain far more PR and
exposure than three days in a sweaty convention centre only open to
industry types. All for around the same amount of money.
And the money doesn't stop there. Dear God, no. Think of all the
extra expenses. The huge electricity bill they're presented
with. The press conference event. The advertising. Product shipping.
Booth transportation. Booth construction. The free flights. At the end
of the day, it all adds up. We'll say, to another million.
So now, we're at $5.5 Million. Goodo. This added million could
go towards advertising for the trucks. A website, even. But forget
about the trucks. There's one question which plagues my mind,
and of course, the mind of many others. Why spend millions and
millions of dollars on the amount of exposure you could get for the
price of a large piece of paper, a projector, room hire for a few
days, and a few hundred chairs? It just seems totally illogical.
This alone suggests the whole event is no longer about the games.
It's about improving the company image. The idea of
'I've got more than you.' It's one big
competition. One big, inordinate, one sided competition that nobody
can win, and all just to look that little bit better than everybody
else.
It's unnecessary, upscale events like E3 which are costing the
industry much needed time and money and frankly, I'm happy to
see the back of it.
|
|
