According to an Ars Technica story, the Electronic Entertainment Expo has gone from a small-and-interesting show to something enormous: maybe too enormous to be workable any longer. It's gotten to the point where you have to schedule meetings behind closed doors to find out anything newsworthy (that a million and one other journalists aren't already covering), and I can attest that tromping from hall to hall at the LA Convention Center to meetings all day long does not put one in the mood to rhapsodize about anything, no matter how new and cool it is. I would end up exhausted and overwhelmed by the overly loud, bright, blingy show floor and really happy not to have to go back for another year.

When I first started covering games, E3 was where most of the big announcements happened; in recent years, though (with the exception of the Sony/Microsoft/Nintendo triumvirate) many game companies have announced stuff before or after the show; some haven't even had booths there at all.

Although it's been reported elsewhere that E3 might actually be closing, Ars Technica reports just that the show will be downsized. (Of course, that's also what happened to Comdex before it bit the big one...) I'll be interested to see what happens in 2007. If the show survives in a smaller form factor, it might be compelling again.