This really takes some believing, usually the Americans are so commercially adept, but they have blown this one, big style.

E3 was the annual jamboree for the whole global industry. It was a statement to the world: “Look At Us”. And it was fantastically expensive. A million pounds starters for a proper booth. Every year I said we shouldn’t do it. And every year we did. But hey, when you have 5 TV crews on the booth at the same time you stop complaining.

But complaining is what everybody did, so the E3 organisers scaled back to make something much cheaper. Cheaper in every sense.

Meanwhile in the provincial backwater called Europe there was a nice friendly annual event at Leipzig. A small fraction of the size of E3, but people liked it and it grew gradually from year to year. Then E3 was scaled back and the people who had complained about the cost of E3 spent the money at Leipzig instead. It quite simply exploded. Leipzig is the new E3.

So now everyone has their annual jamboree again. And everyone can complain about the cost. It is just business as usual.

With one enormous difference. The main global event of the year is now in Europe, not in America. This is going to favour the European game industry so much where before they were at a disadvantage. And obviously for the American game industry it will be vice versa.

This is important stuff because the games industry is still at it’s very beginning.

So what do you think of E3 and Leipzig? You can add your comments by clicking the link below.