Leipzig will replace E3? - Rein

The shock collapse of E3 has left many in the industry fearing for the impact its loss will have on the games sector - but Epic Games boss Mark Rein is convinced that Europe's Leipzig Games Convention will now replace the LA conference as the world's premiere gaming showcase.

Speaking to sister site Eurogamer TV in an exclusive interview to be broadcast next week, Rein, who attended the east German event to promote Xbox 360 action title Gears of War and PC shooter Unreal Tournament 2007, argued that GC's mix of consumer and trade visitors make it the natural successor to the fallen and flawed US stalwart.

âLeipzig illustrates exactly what was wrong with E3,â Rein insisted. âThis is a great show, it's open to the public - I could never understand why they didn't open E3 to the public.

He continued: âI bet you if they had done that the way Leipzig does there would still be an E3 and it would be just as important and people would be happy about spending that money because more than 100,000 consumers will come through and touch and feel games they're actually gonna buy - you have a chance to sell millions of games here and also these people will tell their friends and news will get out and it won't just be reporters' opinions.â

A record 183,000 visitors attended last week's Games Convention, which was supported by the three platform holders as well as all major software publishers. Over 90 per cent of this year's 368 exhibitors have already confirmed there involvement in next year's event.

âThis is a great show, all the big exhibitors are here, you have the business area here so you don't need to build a business area in the back of your trade show booth - you don't have to go three miles from the showfloor to sit and chat like this,â Rein added.

One criticism levelled at this year's event was that the bulk of the game demos on display were the same ones publishers had showed off at E3 back in May - the argument being that developers had not had sufficient time to prepare fresh code for public consumption. But Rein believes that by holding GC earlier in the summer, publishers would treat the convention as a focal point for premiering new games.

âI think this show will replace E3. Hopefully they'll move it a month or two earlier and this will be the show you build your public demo for,â he offered. âThat's never going to go away. Developers who go, 'thank god, we don't have to build E3 demos anymore!' - excuse me?

âYou still, at least once a year, have to sell your game to the press; we do it three or four times a year. There's always going to be an event you have to polish for so it might as well be one where the public gets to see your game too,â said Rein.

The outspoken US developer boss did, however, concede that Germany's draconian ratings system does present an ongoing problem for publishers of mature-content games.

âThe only negative about it that I can think of, and this is more a Germany thing than it is of the show, is it's very hard to show mature games here because of the rules that they have,â he explained. âI did an interview and showed a trailer of UT and they had to kick everyone out who was under 18 and close a curtain around, just in case some child saw it - that's a little crazy.â

The full, exclusive video interview with Mark Rein will be broadcast next week on Eurogamer TV.