What is E3, the video game exhibition, and why it captivates every year? – The world

Le Monde | 12/06/2016 at 15h41 • Updated 13.06.2016 at 7:43 | By William Audureau

7 hours, 45 minutes, 6 seconds … on NeoGAF, the most influential English-language video game forum in the world, the countdown has begun . On shots Sunday 13 hours (22 hours in France), the US publisher Electronic Arts ( FIFA , Battlefield) will kick off the ritual pre conferences -Electronic Entertainment Exposition (E3), the show’s most important video game of the year, while the Japanese Square Enix ( Final Fantasy , Dragon Quest ) will open the show at 11 am 45 (20 h 45 in France) with a program broadcast on YouTube and Twitch. Bethesda ( Fallout , Dishonored , Doom …) will take over at 19 am (3 am in France).

for a week, a whole section of the Internet – not the least noisy – will live to the rhythm of new game announcements, posted trailers, more or less forced jokes and embarrassing the coming executives on stage, or for humorous diversions that these conferences will undoubtedly generate. In 2015, that of Sony, the largest, had been viewed over 3 million times on YouTube, outside live broadcast on Twitch.

The Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) is a trade show video game held annually since 1995 at the Convention Center in Los Angeles – off 2007-2008 – by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), the grouping of interests of the major video game publishers based in the United States. For several days, the affiliate members present at the event reveal their catalog of games for months or even years to come, drawing the future trends of the industry.

Since the mid 2000s, lectures are filmed and broadcast live on the Internet: while the show itself is not physically open to the public, it can track ads directly. For two years, the media time of E3 tends to spill even more over the two weeks ahead, publishers making the race to be the first to announce their games – and get maximum exposure, even empty the conference in their capacity surprises

Read also:. E3, a gaming lounge increasingly out of sync

• Why E3 creates the excitement of the Internet?

Because E3 is a live broadcast event and that all proportions guarded, like the Super Bowl -the final of the American football championship – the US or the Eurovision in Europe, it is the only afford to attract attention of people in the same place at the same time, at the same time. very orchestrated communication sequence side publishers, E3 is also an opportunity for rigolarde communion around their passions for consumers

In addition, for fans of certain brands. – in the video game one can be pro-Nintendo, as can be pro-Paris-Saint-Germain football – E3 vehicle each year hoping to see live the amazing revelation of a new console, a blockbuster highly desirable, or the return of a mythical deductible unjustly forgotten.

for a fringe observers, it is also the perfect opportunity to concoct funny animated images that will tour Web, mocking emphasis English Yves Guillemot, President of the french publisher Ubisoft, or just to play bingo while trying to anticipate the ads and phrases that mark each conference.

Read also: video Games: a few days before E3, early ads, crazy hopes and funny paris

• What are cults moments of E3?

There are plenty, although the most famous date from the appearance and democratization of the Internet video. It’s Shigeru Miyamoto, creator of Nintendo’s iconic, landing on the scene in 2004, brandishing a sword to announce The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess , in an epic trailer filled with winks eye to the aesthetics of Lord of the rings , before a crowd in a trance.

These are the interventions almost every year Reggie Fils-Aime, marketing director of Nintendo of America spent a single conference of anonymity to stardom online gaming, and now plays each year of his charismatic

Read also. “Reggie” Son- loved, part of Nintendo became an icon for the players and the Web

More embarrassing is Bill Ritch, producer of a Genji: Days of the Blade for PlayStation 3, which is proud to announce a set “based on famous battles which actually took place in Japan historic” , it immediately shows with “giant enemy crab” cult.

closer to us is Sony in 2015, announcing in a trailer for the return of one of the most significant games a generation, role play Final Fantasy , prompting hysterical cheers of a crowd of journalists and bloggers incredulous.

• what are the expected surprises?

By definition, as are surprises, we do not know. But not in any case we know what is revealed: the new Nintendo console, the NX, which the manufacturer will not disclose the concept that later in the year; PlayStation 4K upscale version of the PlayStation 4, Sony has recently announced, warning it would not be shown at E3. virtual reality headsets and at least one new Microsoft console model are, however, expected, as the announcement of the return of a major series of Capcom (index you: zombies), and a new unprecedented frankness Ubisoft .

• How do you pronounce E3?

This depends on modes and years. In the 1990s, it was customary to say “iquioube”. Anglophones now pronounce the “isswi” and the French “eutroa”. Nothing.