Bethesda's Pete Hines: "E3 needs to be something all of us support"
The Bethesda exec calls for the industry to decide the future look of E3 and to back it
Bethesda believes E3 is a really important event for the games industry, and it has called upon its fellow publishers to unite to secure its future.
This has been a challenging year for the Los Angeles expo. EA has once again staged its own event away from the main show, while Activision Blizzard has decided against a large presence. The biggest loss, however, is PlayStation, which did not attend in any capacity.
Yet it remains a popular week for consumers, and this year brought some major announcements and game reveals.
Pete Hines, senior vice president of global marketing and communications at Bethesda, is aware that there are differing views on what E3 should be, but he says the industry needs to get together to decide its future, and then back it.
"I think it's a really important show for our industry," he tells GamesIndustry.biz. "I think there needs to be a lot of discussion between all of the companies on how this looks going forward.
"Part of my thing is, if we are going to do it as an industry, then we need to be into it. We can't have everybody deciding to go off in their own little directions to do this or that. I think folks need to be here, they need to participate. If we have to change the size or scope of that... okay. But I want it to be something that all of us, as an industry, get together and support. And have it be something that's positive and sustainable.
"It's not a very specific answer, but I don't think I am the guy to solve what it should be, either. I do just want us to figure out a way for us to walk together, and a way that achieves everybody's objectives as best as possible."
Hines continues: "We are the greatest form of entertainment on the planet. It's a great chance to put a spotlight on a great industry. We should not underestimate the importance of that. We are bigger than the sum of our parts when we come together for something like E3."
Our full interview with Pete Hines, where we discuss rescuing Fallout 76 and the future of VR, will be released later.