European Computer Trade Show
The European Computer Trade Show ( ECTS ) was an annual computer game trade fair in London between 1989 and 2004 . For a long time it was the largest and most influential such trade fair in Europe and was second only to its counterpart in Los Angeles , the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3).
history
The trade fair, organized by the media company CMP Information from 1989 to 2004, was aimed exclusively at a specialist audience: developers , publishers , distributors and dealers, but also hardware manufacturers and, above all, the specialist press. The general public, however, was excluded from the fair until 2002. The event was directed by Miller Freeman, later Andy Lane took over. The public relations were taken over by the agency Bastion.
The ECTS was first held in 1989 at the Business Design Center in Islington , North London. From then on, the fair steadily increased in influence and scope, the number of participants increased steadily. Many large development studios and publishers presented their latest titles and news here.
From 1992 to 1996 inclusive, CMP organized two ECTS per year: a spring fair in April and an autumn fair in September. Ultimately, however, the decision was made to only hold one trade fair in autumn, as many games are released during the hotly contested Christmas business and developers and publishers therefore had little interest in getting their titles in spring, shortly before E3 in May present.
In 1995 the ECTS moved from the Business Design Center to the Grand Hall at the Olympia Exhibition Center . After the number of participants continued to rise, in 1997 the exhibition area was expanded to include the adjacent National Hall. According to the organizer CMP, the number of participants rose by 24 percent to 20,161 in 1997 compared to the previous year.
In the late 1990s, major publishers such as Activision , Eidos Interactive and Electronic Arts began holding their own events where they had the undivided attention of their trading partners. Many publishers began to weigh up whether it would make sense to spend seven figures on an attention-grabbing booth just a few months after E3. Since 1999/2000, the ECTS has been struggling noticeably with falling numbers of participants, as a result of which its importance also declined.
At the ECTS 2000 a "Developers Area" was offered for the first time, which offered a meeting point for the European developer community. Smaller development studios were also able to present themselves here and exchange ideas without having to pay the high fees for their own exhibition stand.
After the ECTS 2000, CMP tried to react to the developments of the last years and relocated the fair to the more modern conference center ExCeL Exhibition Center at the Millennium Dome . In 2001, the Game Developers Conference Europe (GDCE) was held for the first time at the same time , a conference of European game developers and an offshoot of the US Game Developers Conference . Publishers, trade and press as well as the top developers were united in one place, from which the ECTS could also benefit in the following years. However, the new location ExCel turned out to be unsuitable for the event during the ECTS 2001 for various reasons and was strongly criticized by many participants. Since 9 of the 10 largest publishers were not represented at the fair, the organizers were exposed to harsh criticism. The number of participants fell by almost 50 percent. After the fair, there were many voices among publishers and developers calling for a drastic reorganization.
The following year, the ECTS returned to West London. The Earls Court Exhibition Center , formerly London's largest exhibition center, was chosen as the venue . Probably the biggest novelty at ECTS 2002 was the integration of the PlayStation Experience , a game event organized by the console manufacturer Sony , at which many of the biggest developers presented their latest titles for Sony's PlayStation . This area was aimed primarily at players, which meant that part of the ECTS was also open to end customers for the first time.
Also in 2002, the Games Convention opened its doors in Leipzig for the first time and thus represented direct competition.
At the ECTS 2003, which this time took place as part of the new London Games Week , some of the big companies were again represented. In some cases, however, these were limited to relatively small exhibition stands, while the large presentations and press releases were held at their own events. Microsoft, for example, only offered a small booth for meetings and discussions at ECTS 2003; the latest Xbox games were presented at the X03 press event, which took place just three weeks later.
As in the previous year, the Sony PlayStation Experience ran at the same time. Console manufacturer Nintendo was also represented again after three years of abstinence. The previously exaggerated hype about Nintendo's return was rather disappointing for many visitors, as the company was not present in the exhibition hall, but only set up its own tour bus outside the exhibition halls. Vivendi Universal Games UK presented together with Valve for the first time the first person shooter Half-Life 2 in Europe.
In October 2003, the ECTS and organizer CMP suffered a severe blow when the English publishers association ELSPA (Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association) announced that it would hold its own computer and video game event in London - at the same time as the ECTS. The European Games Network (EGN) baptized fair should take place in combination with the event Game Stars Live . There was a dispute between the two events, which was carried out publicly in the media. In November 2003, London Mayor Ken Livingstone announced that the city and the Tourism Council would support EGN and Game Star Live. In March 2004, the association of independent game developers TIGA (The Independent Games Developers Association) announced that it would host its own developer conference called the European Developers Forum as a counterpart to the GDCE , which would take place at the same location as EGN and GSL.
From September 1st to 3rd, 2004, the ECTS opened its doors again to the specialist audience in the Earls Court Exhibition Center. Almost at the same time as part of the London Games Festival, the competition events EGN, Game Stars Live and EDF took place in the ExCel conference center. While many developers and dealers continued to be represented at ECTS, many of the publishers and the press chose the EGN. On the sidelines of the ECTS 2004, the British final of the e-sports tournament World Cyber Games was also held.
In April 2005, CMP announced that it was withdrawing from the UK. This also meant the end of ECTS and the end-customer entertainment fair SCoRE . The GDCE developer conference, on the other hand, was also held in August 2005, this time in cooperation with TIGA. This leaves only two trade shows for the computer and video game sector in Great Britain: the European Games Network and the Edinburgh Interactive Entertainment Festival (EIEF), which is part of the Edinburgh International Festival .
Data
| year | Period | Venue |
|---|---|---|
| 1989 | 16.-18. April | Business Design Center |
| 1990 | 1st - 3rd April | Business Design Center |
| 1991 | 14.-16. April | Business Design Center |
| 1992 | 12-14 April | Business Design Center |
| 6-8 September | Business Design Center | |
| 1993 | 4th-6th April | Business Design Center |
| 5th-7th September | Business Design Center | |
| 1994 | 10-12 April | Business Design Center |
| 4th-6th September | Business Design Center | |
| 1995 | 26.-28. March | Olympia |
| 10-12 September | Olympia | |
| 1996 | 14.-16. April | Olympia |
| 9-10 September | Olympia | |
| 1997 | 7th-9th September | Olympia |
| 1998 | 6-8 September | Olympia |
| 1999 | 5th-7th September | Olympia |
| 2000 | 3rd to 5th September | Olympia |
| 2001 | 2-4 September | ExCeL Exhibition Center |
| 2002 | 29.-31. August | Earls Court Exhibition Center |
| 2003 | 27.-29. August | Earls Court Exhibition Center |
| 2004 | 1st - 3rd September | Earls Court Exhibition Center |