Five Ways Companies Can Avoid E3 Embarrassment

1UP COVER STORY | WEEK OF MAY 28 | E3 2012

Five Ways Companies Can Avoid E3 Embarrassment

Cover Story: Publishers, take note: the following information may save your lives.

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ost people think E3 only exists to show off the boldest and brightest innovations within our industry, but it offers many other possibilities — namely, the chance for gaming companies to throw away thousands upon thousands of dollars on pure spectacle. Regardless of their financials, publishers will stoop to anything to generate red-hot E3 publicity, and this unfortunate trend has provided some of the most memorable travesties throughout the convention’s short history. Sure, these public embarrassments give us website writers valuable material to hash and rehash ad nauseum, but what about those multinational, billion-dollar corporations? On that melancholy plane ride home, their representatives can’t help but mull over their continued public humiliation and the slight decrease in density of the money piles they sleep on.

Rest easy, publishers; E3 doesn’t always have to result in the 21st century equivalent of the pillory. Following these five simple tips is all it takes to keep your dignity, reputation, and bottom line intact. And when the Library of Congress starts archiving animated .gifs — a horrifying possibility — your press conference won’t be immortalized in an easily spreadable format.