Activision party - E3 2010

Monday before E3 was a day filled with various conferences and presentations by the game publishers and developers that are headlining the show. Each involved standing in line for a rather long time, before being seated in a fabulous theater and watching the biggest and best upcoming titles come to life. For 2010, the day was headlined by events from Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, and Activision. Here is the overview of the Activision press conference.

On a second thought, the invitation to the event never mentioned the words “conference”. As a matter of fact, this even had no speeches, no presentations or folks in suits telling us things about the games they are developing. The Activision event was more like a huge concert party, complete with everything a person could want. The only problem was, much like some other events, is that things got started over 45 minutes behind schedule. But at the end of the night, there was far too much fun to be had to remember any negative aspects.

With free unlimited drinks and snacks in the lobby, Staples center was packed in anticipation of the event. Once the doors finally opened, attendees were greeted by Z Trip already spinning the latest mixes as the crowd filled the arena. The night’s entertainment continued with some huge names, including Lady Gaga, Usher, K-Os, Jane’s Addiction, NERD, Rihanna and Eminem. All of these artists made an appearance for at least one song, and everyone put on a great show. It was quite amazing to see so many big names for a gaming event, and made for a great evening of entertainment.

But of course, this had to be related to Activision’s game titles, so the audience was treated to a bunch of trailers in between sets. A new trailer for True Crime played, followed by a musical piece by a female vocalist we could not identify. Tony Hawk made an appearance, along with other famous skaters, to introduce his latest title, Tony Hawk Shred. The skateboarding game will focus on player creativity and once again ship with a wireless skateboard controller. No further details were mentioned, but it was great nonetheless for Tony to show and promote his title personally.

The evening was basically a huge concert, and with unlimited drinks, some folks sure took advantage of the situation. The biggest complaint one might have with the show is that every artist only came to sign one or two songs, after which the whole place went dark for many minutes at a time in order for the crew to change sets. Combined, it is likely that over 30 minutes were wasted simply waiting for sets to change. It is unclear why Activision didn’t simply show more game trailers during this time, instead opting everyone to sit in the dark and wait patiently.

The night ended with a literally explosive Black Ops trailer. As it played, fire and explosions rocked both sides of the arena, in sync with explosions on screen. All in all this was a very impressive night that, at the end, smelled a bit like BBQ.