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VinCenzo Gets In Touch with Inner Nerd at E3 |
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May 15 - Los Angeles
This past weekend, video game developers from around the world converged upon the L.A. convention center for the yearly sensory overload known as E3, or the Electronics Entertainment Expo. Quite simply, you've never seen a convention like this. With the thousands of video screens, gargantuan booth displays, parading mascots, booming PA systems and strobes and laser lighting at every turn, E3 has more in common with a massive summer concert than a business event of any sort, but there's no denying that this young industry is booming, surpassing the size of the Hollywood film industry this past year.
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With hundreds of stations set up to demo video games, you'd think that there would be plenty, but people still had to line up to try all of the latest offerings.
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To keep up with what's on the cutting edge, we stopped by this multimedia Mecca to see the sights and get in touch with our inner nerds. There is no industry that captures the essence of the new electronically connected world more than the computer gaming industry, and the newest products threaten to not only find the mainstream, but define it. Sony's forthcoming Playstation 2, for example, will combine a gaming system with an internet connection, limited computing abilities and a high quality DVD player. With a retail of under $400, it has the potential to find the mass market and become a household standard. Walking the aisles of E3, you can't help but shake the feeling that you're looking at the future of entertainment not only for the computer savvy, but for everybody. |
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He may make his living in the spotlight, but even Jay Leno looked a little dazed by the sensory overload as he prepared a segment for his show.
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Marketing in this new regime isn't a small task, and without question, the operative philosophy at E3 is, "The flashier, the better." These words apply all the way down the line, from the game graphics to the promotional materials to the final product packaging. VinCenzo has already started to work with game distributors and developers on special software packaging, designed to stand out in a market that is already saturated with eye candy of every kind. Most notably, VinCenzo recently helped to design and manufacture a promotional tin for "Quake III," which any button masher will tell you is the PC gaming equivalent of the holy grail, and one of last year's top sellers. |
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VinCenzo produced the packaging for Quake III, one of the most popular PC games of the past year.
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Thankfully, you can't be conducting business all the time, and E3 is king when it comes to providing down time entertainment. So after scouting around, we blew up some evil robots, piloted a few starships, and even caught a skateboarding show at a massive indoor half pipe that one of the exhibitors had constructed. But don't be fooled. As much fun as we had, everything we did was in the name of market research... no, really! |
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Researching packaging at a video game convention is hard work... incredibly hard... honest.
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