Tiga boss predicts shift towards regional industry events

Fred Hasson, the CEO of UK development trade body Tiga, has told GamesIndustry.biz that he believes the focus could shift towards regional industry events as E3 evolves into a much smaller show.

Speaking in an exclusive interview to be published on GI.biz tomorrow, Hasson said: "It's not clear to me whether people will want to go to E3 in July, because I'm not sure if people will see there's much benefit in doing that.

"It'll depend on the publishers, and whether they want the developers to go out to E3 with them at that point in time. I'm not sure that they will, to be honest, although it's still not 100 per cent clear."

As announced by ESA president Doug Lowenstein last week, next year's E3 will not be held in May, as is traditional, but in July - which is also when the Brighton-based Develop conference takes place. But according to Hasson, the date clash won't neccessarily have a negative impact.

"It depends whether we want the Develop conference to be an international event," he said.

"I've heard E3 is targeted at the North American market. Develop definitely had the feel of a UK event, so maybe that's what it is - it's regional events, horses for courses. Maybe there isn't a conflict at all."

Hasson went on to suggest that GDC could become more significant than E3 for studios looking to target the US, stating: "I've always said it's an event for developers on developers' terms, and a lot of publishers come there to meet developers and see what's going on. In a way, for the development community, that's more appropriate for us.

"So our strategy - even before we knew there was anything going on with E3 - was to say to the DTI, we believe more developers would benefit from going out to events such as GDC in terms of their business interests and their commercial prospects."

Visit GamesIndustry.biz tomorrow to read the full interview and find out why Hasson believes the ESA made the right decision, where he would advise developers to spend their marketing budget in the wake of E3, and why he thinks the London Games Festival represents a coming of age for the industry.