GO3 Electronic Entertainment Expo To Replace E3?

dowlingw writes "With the recent announcement that E3 has been downsized, a similar high-profile event, GO3 Electronic Entertainment Expo 2007 is being held in Perth, Western Australia and promises to showcase products and services from vendors worldwide, especially those in the South-East Asia region. It also looks like everyone might get a similar event closer to home."

Perth

[darkitecture]

What a lot of people might not be immediately aware of is the political motivation for any convention/exhibition being held in Perth.

The Perth Convention Exhibition Centre [perthcentre.com.au] is a tomb. It was a taxpayer's nightmare. It was expensive, took god damn ages to build and ultimately became an eyesore because of the banal 'generic block of buildings' design [google.com] that was chosen. It was an attempt to attract more conventions and exhibitions in Perth but these days remains mostly dormant and unused. Not to mention that when it IS used, entrance fees are ludicrously expensive (in a vain attempt to offset the cost) and still feels obtrusive and unwelcoming.

If it actually ends up happening, don't expect the "GO3 Electronic Entertainment Expo" to be anything more than horrible. You'll end up paying extortionary prices for parking only to find maybe a hundred booths with no groundbreaking visions into the future of their product line, but instead a couple of racks full of computer hardware you could get already buy off the shelf for a cheaper price at your local computer store and games that've been released months ago.

This is just another disappointing 'expo' that serves no purpose to the consumer. It's a futile attempt to justify the construction of the centre which has spent more days empty and sucking taxpayer's money than anything else.

The Battle for East Asia

[blueZhift]

It looks like a battle is brewing in East Asia to host the next big electronic entertainment show. This would have happened anyway, but with the downsizing of E3, the stakes are now higher. Recently there was a show proposal that would be hosted in South Korea and I wouldn't be too surprised to see a Chinese proposal in the near future.

Right now Perth may have a couple of advantages, one it's in an English speaking territory so it can potentially draw interest from North America. And two, it doesn't carry the political baggage that Korean, Chinese, and Japanese sites might due to the history of the relations of those nations. And for a city the size of Perth (1.3 million it says on the site), having a successful show like this once or twice a year may add enough to the local economy to make it worthwhile. Not only that, a good GO3 could attract other shows from across Australia to Perth.

While some serious business could be done at such a show, I think it is pretty clear that they're after the hordes of consumers who will come for the hype, glitz, and a chance to play some new games. I wouldn't expect too many consumers to take a trip from the Americas to Perth for this show, but you can bet that visitors from Asia might make the trip along with Australians of course.