Hollenshead: E3 Was Pretty Much a Disappointment to Everyone

"E3 this year, in my opinion, it was pretty much disappointing to everybody" id CEO Todd Hollenshead told me early today during an interview. "The press were disappointed, the people I talked to in the industry are disappointed, almost everyone agree that that was the wrong way to do it." It's too early to tell if the shrinking E3 has helped bolster id's own id-centric annual show QuakeCon. Usually id Software waits until the Saturday of the show to get official attendance numbers. But Hollenshead is already sure that QuakeCon is the right way to host a gaming conference."I think we struck a balance of being vendor supported and still being in touch with the gamers," he said. "We had over 6,000 hours of volunteer time, that's like the polar opposite of E3,. which is all about business." In fact id Software only officially showed up at E3 as a single announcement during the Electronic Arts press conference. They were there to tell the world that EA would be publishing their upcoming id Tech 5 game, Rage. And even that had to be modified to fit in with what E3 and its attendees expect from the show. "We were told you can't show this stuff because of these five reasons," Hollenshead said. "Last night (during QuakeCon) we had the bigger, better, more hardcore, not suitable for investor conference (announcement) for Rage and Doom." [Pic]