E3 Organizers Survey Dominant Game Genres

Author: by David Jenkins, Simon Carless

Organizers of next month's Los Angeles-based E3 Expo have released exhibitor survey data discussing the amount and genre types of the games to be shown at E3. According to officials, 1,000 video games and related products will be show at the event this May 18th-20th. Much has already been made of the fact that this year’s show is already sold out, with 400 companies packing into the 540,000 net square feet of exhibition space. E3 2005 is of particular interest to the wider media because of the promise from Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo that some details of each of their next generation consoles will revealed for the first time. Current analyst predictions suggest that the next-generation Xbox will receive a full unveiling at E3, with multiple software titles being playable, and that Sony's PlayStation 3 and the Nintendo 'Revolution' will have some more limited graphical demos available, although this supposition is not yet confirmed. Overall, more than 5,000 products will be shown at E3 2005. Exhibitors were asked to categorize their top ten game software products at the expo, with the results of the survey as follows: Action/Adventure games: 19 percent Role-playing games: 13 percent Sports/Driving/Racing games: 11 percent Child/Family games: 6 percent Strategy games: 5 percent Simulation games: 4 percent Educational/Edutainment games: 3 percent Arcade games: 3 percent Other games: 4 percent The results are particularly interesting because of the high number of role-playing titles, although the request to list only the companies' top ten products may simply mean that more publishers consider these games to be amongst their highest quality titles.