Huh? Who's there? Oh, sorry... I was just taking a quick 10-day nap to recover from the whirlwind of game-filled days and sleepless nights that was this year's E3 Media & Business Summit. Although the developers and publishers are the ones ostensibly driving the show with their "games" and "announcements," I maintain that it's us sleep-deprived journalists who are really the core of the event. After all, we're the gatekeepers who have to condense the whirlwind of news into something somewhat interesting and digestible to the gaming public. With so many disparate journalists in one place, consensus on a game or company's performance can coalesce quickly, which brings us to our first point:

　　...A Journalist Scorned

　　If there was one thing that journalists at this year's E3 could pretty much all agree on, it was their disappointment with Nintendo's press conference. Though the finer points of Microsoft and Sony's offerings were debatable, almost every specialist journalist on hand at the show reacted to Nintendo's press conference as you might react to a stranger kicking your puppy. Nintendo dashed early rumors about the follow-ups to fan-favorites Kid Icarus and Punch-Out!! by trotting out more casual-friendly fare such as Animal Crossing, Wii Sports Resort, and Wii Music. Add in a general tone that focused primarily on Nintendo's success with nontraditional gamers, and you can see why the hardcore gaming press felt a little underwhelmed, to put it mildly.

　　Nintendo itself might be partially responsible for the sour reception. Last month, the publisher promised that "core gamers" would be happy with its showing. That tune changed after the press conference, with Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto suggesting to MSNBC that these "core gamers" were no longer the focus at events like E3.

　　Nintendo president Satoru Iwata eventually issued an apology for neglecting these core fans at the show, but I got the sense that his heart wasn't really in it. It's not hard to see why, either. Despite the grousing from the specialist press, it's hard to fault Nintendo for playing to its strengths: namely, the casual gamers who have been instrumental in the current sales success of the Nintendo DS and Wii. Games such as Wii Music and Wii Sports Resort may not appeal much to readers of sites like GameSpot, but they will look great when they're inevitably demoed on shows like Today and Good Morning America (as was the case for Wii Fit). It's these types of mainstream outlets, with their larger audiences of less-connected gamers, that increasingly seem to be the focus of Nintendo's press strategy. We in the hardcore press can lump it all we want, but it's becoming increasingly obvious that Nintendo sees us as superfluous to its overall business strategy.

　　The Show Must Go On

　　After Nintendo's press conference, the second biggest topic of discussion among journalists at this year's E3 might have revolved around E3 itself. The show made its return to the LA Convention Center this year, a welcome change from the transportation nightmare that was last year's Santa Monica show. That said, the familiar location highlighted just how much E3 has shrunk since its heyday. The convention center felt a bit like a ghost town, with a few thousand invited guests traipsing around a space that used to be crammed with 60,000 to 70,000 attendees. On the plus side, this made the show floor infinitely easier to traverse, and limited the amount of time that any one journalist needed to wait to get a hands-on show-floor demo or a sit-down appointment in a public-relations booth. On the other hand, it took away a lot of the excitement of the event, and made it a lot harder for broadcast outlets to get interesting B-roll footage of a raucous show floor.

　　Journalists I talked to were generally of two minds about the future of E3 after this year's somewhat empty offering. Some feel that that the Entertainment Software Association, which organizes the annual event, and its members will be forced to admit their mistake and return to the over-the-top blowout E3s of the past, in an effort to gain more press attention. Others thought that the smaller show signaled the end of the road for the franchise, and that E3 itself wouldn't exist in any form come this time next year.

　　I think the truth lies somewhere in the middle. First, the bloated, overly flashy E3s of years past seem unlikely to return; the ESA is too eager to show that gaming is a "mature" and "respectable" industry, and publishers still seem loathe to once again spend the large sums of money that were required to compete with each other's overly lavish booths. All parties seem perfectly happy to cede the crowded, rock-concert-meets-amusement-park feel to shows such as the Penny Arcade Expo and Comic-Con, the latter of which is already starting to feel a bit like "E3, Part 2" for much of the industry.

　　That said, I don't think the new, low-key affair is in any danger of falling away, either. Despite the smaller size, publishers largely continue to treat E3 with respect, saving at least a few major announcements and demos for the multiday event. Even Activision, which chose not to participate in this year's show, held a major press conference nearby in an effort to peel off the mass of journalists gathered there. And therein lies the catch-22 appeal of E3. As long as journalists are willing to treat E3 with respect, publishers will do the same; and as long as publishers make a big deal out of E3, so will journalists. The simple inertia of E3's name and position on the editorial calendar seems likely to keep the show rolling on in some form or another for years to come.

　　Worst Analysis

　　The award for worst analysis of this year's E3 goes to this CNBC reporter, who used her game-loving, 16-year-old son as the primary source for "The Ultimate Proof Sony Is Winning." After all, why should you interview actual sources or read actual research when there's a bona fide expert sitting right there in your living room?

　　Following Up

　　Those concerned for the health of the game-magazine market following the shuttering of Games for Windows would do well to read Kevin Gifford's take on the demise of his unfortunately short-lived entertainment magazine, PiQ. The takeaway: "Forget about the return of GameFan or Next Generation or anything else you may've liked in the past--the video game realm will be lucky if it sees any sort of new magazine launch in America at any time in our lives."

　　Those interested in the editorial-versus-advertising value of Sony and Future's new interactive magazine, Qore, would do well to read GameDaily's interview with PlayStation Network's Susan Panico, which runs appropriately in the AdWatch section of the site. The takeaway: "We want to make sure [our users are] engaging with the content; we want this to be the TRL or Entertainment Tonight for PlayStation."

　　Finally, those interested in learning more about the many journalists who stayed home from E3 this year would do well to read Griffin McElroy's hilarious itinerary from the Extreme Electronic Entertainment Expo, which took place in his home while E3 was happening. The takeaway: "The couch in Convention Room A folds out into a futon, so you can crash there if you want, I guess."

　　This Month's Must-Read

　　With all the hoopla surrounding E3, you may have missed Crispy Gamer's feature on the history of American video game journalism. The piece comes from Steven Kent, author of the excellent Ultimate History of Video Games, and touches on everything from ethics to the influence of Nintendo Power to the death of the printed game magazine. A great, surface-level look at over three decades of American writing about games.

　　Quote of the Moment

　　"THE INTERNET DOES NOT HAVE ENOUGH WORDS ABOUT VIDEO GAMES!"

　　--John Campbell, in a comic written for "a fellow who works at an Internet video game blog."

　　For more about PressSpotting, check out the introductory column or peruse the PressSpotting Archive.

　　Kyle Orland is a freelance journalist specializing in video games and based out of Laurel, MD. He writes for a variety of outlets, as detailed on his personal site, and he's also the co-author of The Videogame Style Guide and Reference Manual. His views do not necessarily reflect those of GameSpot. He's lonely, but he ain't that lonely yet.

　　Questions? Comments? Story ideas? Bitter invective? Send it to Kyle.