It seems that for the past few years, people within the industry discuss E3 as if the event is on its deathbed. To be fair, last year, upon hearing both developers and journalist alike discuss the format and layout in Santa Monica, I was reading the event its last rites myself. But for all the yearly bellyaching about E3, and for every Denis Dyack proclaiming it needs to die, there’s a simple truth every journalist, publisher, and developer knows is true in the back of their minds.

The industry needs E3’s survival. Because of that I’m already planning ahead for my first ever trip in 2009.

The single biggest reason the industry needs E3 is because the spectacle draws in mainstream press that typically doesn’t bother to go out of its way to cover gaming. Think about it: video games are grossing more money than any other form of entertainment, $18.8 billion according to NPD numbers, and the buzzword for the games industry is "recession-proof" in an election year where the floundering economy is the top issue Americans are concerned about. While the mainstream press will go out of their way to cover every major music or film event, when does mainstream press go out of its way to cover video games? To sensationalize sex and violence, to cover the newest mainstream Wii game, or E3.

We have the Tokyo Game Show, the Penny Arcade Expo, D.I.C.E., the Game Developers Conference, Leipzig, but E3 is the only major industry event that draws in mainstream press. As the industry continues to fight to be taken seriously in the mainstream press, it needs anything that gets the mainstream’s eye without that condescending view. Much of that is because most the events in America are completely inaccessible to non-gamers in a way that film and music festivals aren’t. That’s sad, since D.I.C.E. and GDC are the conferences the industry needs the mainstream to see in order to start taking the mature content and nature of the video games seriously. But in an industry with no true stars and no product a person can screen and understand in 90 minutes, the spectacle is the draw that brings people in whom otherwise might not pay attention. From hooking them there, we can show off the games and maybe get them talking about other things other than the sensationalist ratings that usually put in the industry on the defensive.