BEIJING, Jan. 20 /PRNewswire-Asia/ -- The return of E3, the growing up of ChinaJoy, the release of a great deal of competitive games at the Leipzig Games Convention, and the TGS is still like a raging fire. Game expos in 2008 were flourishing as before under the financial crisis. These magnificent events are getting closer and closer to every game player through the magic hands of time.
2008, grand game events throughout
Global game expos reached the peak in July 2008. E3 and ChinaJoy were held at almost the same time at both ends of the ocean. The former world famous game show, E3, was held in Los Angeles. Although E3 tries to be professional only, the show still brought us great shock. At the expo, "Final Fantasy" announced its latest plan, and earned the spotlight of the show. Meanwhile, games like "Command & Conquer - Red Alert 3", "Biohazard 5", and "Street Fighter IV", etc. came out one after another. These latest games attracted general players' eyes and brought shockwaves to them, although they didn't see by themselves; this is also the deepest impression E3 left us!
http://www.e3expo.com
A decade ago, players in China had never thought that they could walk into the game expo to get these fabulous experiences, but today, ChinaJoy became one of the top class game shows as well as the Chinese players' carnival. In 2008, ChinaJoy broke new records: 25,913 visitors on the first day, 110,000 visitors total in 3 days, over 200 game companies from home and abroad participated, and nearly 400 games and developing tools were displayed; these show that ChinaJoy has already become one of the world's top game expos.
http://en.chinajoy.net/
August belongs to the Leipzig Games Convention. Leipzig has become the new game central city in Europe instead of London. Year by year, the scale and quality of the show held in Leipzig became larger and better. Different from E3, Leipzig opens to all kinds of games. Besides "Far Cry 2", "Fallout 3", "The Sims 3", and "Red Alert 3"; "Aion", "World of Warcraft: The Wrath of the Lich King Expansion Pack", "War Hammer Online", etc. were also shown at the expo. Leipzig Games Convention is developing into another all-inclusive game show.
http://www.gc-germany.com/
In October, the Tokyo Game Show was open on time. Besides the constant show of Cosplay, 190,000 attendees also places the Tokyo Game Show beyond others. Top TV games like CAPCOM, SONY, Nintendo, Microsoft, etc. still play a leading role on TGS.
http://tgs.cesa.or.jp
Where is the way out of the game expos ...
Game expos develop with game industry. With more than 10 years' development, E3 witnessed the ups and downs of the global game industry; the growing up of ChinaJoy shows the rapid development of the Chinese game industry. The Leipzig Game Show moved to Koeln; the fading of TGS records how the Japanese game industry is gradually slipping from the top of the world's game industry.
The development track of these game expos is closely related to the external environment. Game expos will inevitably need to rely on the game industry environment to find a way forward. Thus, under the financial crisis, the E3 Expo, a the self-contained expo which had little significance in stimulating the market and was no longer a point of interest to companies, was forced to re-open to the public to continue attracting sustained input from companies and curb the influence of large-scale shrinkage. Therefore, after the show in 2008, E3 announced that return of E3 in 2009 will once again be open to the public, in order to counter its fall to the bottom from the peak of the industry.
As a show focusing on online game products, ChinaJoy, has been better and better during these years. Though the number in attendance did not increase much compared to the year 2007, the stable flow, the steady input from game companies, and the scale of expo proved that ChinaJoy currently is in a stage of sound development. In 2009, large companies will continue to flourish at ChinaJoy. Listed companies like Shanda, The 9, Net Dragon, Wanmei, Tencent, and Kingsoft had all finished their financing plan before the financial crisis. Adequate cash reserves guarantee their acquisition and merger plans as expected in 2009, while they reorganize the industry resources to keep their leading advantages. Accordingly, the primary consideration of ChinaJoy in 2009 will be how to break through the existing model is.
The Leipzig Game Convention is the only large game show in Europe. Advancing with the times is the Leipzig Game Convention's development. Because of the inadequate infrastructure of eastern cities in Germany and the unsatisfactory number of visitors in 2007, BIU on Feb. 25, 2008 made a decision to move the convention to Koeln and changed its name to GAMESCom, jointly organized by Koeln International Exhibition Company and BIU.
The state of TGS, which has a long history, is also not optimistic. This year, the share of Japanese online game companies that turned out showed a clear decline. That the traditional TV game suffered impact long ago is an undisputed fact. Creator of "Metal Gear Solid", HIDEO KOJIMA, points out that if concerns are still limited to TV game, the Japanese game industry won't break through their own limitations.
If the exhibition organizers can realize that, under the unhopeful environment, the most important method is change and adapt to market needs, then in 2009 and beyond, it won't be a surprise to see the major expos changing their themes and characteristics. Japanese local online games shining on TGS will be possible, console game suffering impact of online game and becoming weaker in global game industry structure will come true, and it will be possible to see Chinese online game companies showing up at the Leipzig Game Convention.
After a series of great game expos in 2008, game expos are ushering in a period of change. The future game expos will not be the pattern of wondering whether the game companies will decide to attend, and the expos must change themes to adapt the market to satisfy the needs of both companies and players. Characteristics can remain but change is imminent. Large game companies will become game empires, and game expos will become some companies' battle field.
Timetable of global game shows in 2009：
E3: June 2nd-4th 2009
ChinaJoy: July 23rd-26th 2009
GAMESCom: Aug 19th-23rd 2009
TGS: has not yet announced
