E For All Attendance Lackluster

Despite the upbeat tone of IDG's official release about the first 'E for All', commentators are noting that the reported figure of 18,000 attendees is lower than expected. Wired is blunt about it: E For All has nothing on PAX. "Penny Arcade Expo was everything E For All dreams of being: a well-attended show packed wall-to-wall with crazy game fans. But it's also inexpensive: three days and two nights of musical performances for way, way less money than an E For All ticket, let alone the additional cost of Video Games Live. And it's got a whole mess of community events, like panels, gaming rooms, and other opportunities that make E For All's extracurriculars look slim. The show floor is just one part of PAX, but it's practically all of E For All."

E for Blah... was at Pax

[dcowart]

Gabe has the details at:

http://www.penny-arcade.com/2007/08/29 [penny-arcade.com]

"For example I had no idea that e for all had hired guerrilla marketers to wander the streets..."

Read below that for the story about the drunk vgXpo guy.

Poorly thoughtout convention has poor turnout

[MMaestro]

Any serious analyst saw this coming for months. They hosted the event in California where any serious hype would simply be reserved for E3 (ever hear of market saturation?) The price of entry was too high ($90 for the weekend? I've been to anime conventions larger than E for All for almost half that price) and lets face it, California is not exactly the easiest place to get around (or cheapest). They managed to get Nintendo and EA and ignored/failed to get everyone else (wheres Ubisoft, Microsoft and Sony?).