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# Playing the Playstation back in L.A. The game is over for E3 in Santa Monica
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/playing-the-playstation-back-in-l-a-the-game-is-over-for-e3-in-santa-monica/
- Published: 2007-12-20T16:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-24T04:26:36.000Z
- Author: Melody Hanatani
- Tags: Business, Santa Monica, #archive-import

*COMMUNITY BRIEFS Out with new, in with the old*

LOS ANGELES One of the world’s largest video game expos will be moving back to the Los Angeles Convention Center next year after just one year in Santa Monica.

The Entertainment Software Association announced on Tuesday that the E3 Media & Business Summit will head back to its old stomping grounds at the Los Angeles Convention Center in July 2008, the same venue that hosted the video game circus from its inaugural year in 1995 until it uprooted and switched to Santa Monica this summer.

Officials with the ESA — the association for the video game publishing industry — decided to give the LA Convention Center another try after participants commented they preferred a more centralized location, according to ESA spokesman Dan Hewitt.

The news was a blow to Santa Monica civic and business leaders that worked hard to bring the Electronic Entertainment Expo to the city by the sea, seeing the immense benefits of hosting an event that used to attract more than 70,000 industry professionals and dedicated video gamers year in and out, until it was switched to a small business summit.

“We are very disappointed, as this was a good fit for Santa Monica, but we are glad that it is staying in the LA region,” said Misti Kerns, the president and CEO of the Santa Monica Convention & Visitors Bureau, which had a hand in bringing E3 to Santa Monica. “We will happily assume that we will see overflow business and evening events here in Santa Monica from those who will want to entertain at the beach.”

> “Going back to the convention center seems like a step back to the old.” — Blevins said. I WOULD’VE LIKED TO SEE THEM EXPAND ON THE SANTA MONICA IDEA A LITTLE MORE.” Tal Blevins vice president of games content for IGN

> “I would’ve liked to see them expand on the Santa Monica idea a little more,”

More than 3,000 people walked through the doors at the Barker Hangar, where the main event for the 2007 E3 Media & Business Summit was held over a three-day period from July 11-13\. The summit was spread over various sites throughout the city — the main exhibitions and video game test drivers were stationed in the Barker Hangar while press conferences and private business meetings were hosted by the local hotels.

“We were looking to try a new format in Santa Monica and they offered the space we were looking for,” Hewitt said on Wednesday. “They had all the logistics they needed for the show.”

The change was met with mixed reactions to the E3 regulars, some saying they preferred the larger expos of the past, others enjoying the relative tranquility of a small-scale event.

Tal Blevins, the vice president of games content for IGN, a Web site that reports on trends in the video gaming industry and reviews new releases, said he was hesitant when he first learned last year that E3 would be relocated to Santa Monica, unsure of how the logistics would work since the event was to be spread out over various locations.

Blevins, who has attended the Electronic Entertainment Expo since 1995, was pleasantly surprised by how smooth his stay was in Santa Monica. Often working until the early morning hours at E3, Blevins said he enjoyed the fact that he could find restaurants in Santa Monica that were still open, something that he felt Downtown Los Angeles lacked.

But what Blevins, who reported on the activities at E3, enjoyed the most was the intimacy of the expo, a show focused more on getting business done. “(The old show) was usually so bloated — you had company A against company B, one trying to be bigger, louder and more flashy,” he said. “Something about the Santa Monica show toned it down, because it was-n’t Electronic Arts next to Activision trying to blow each other out of the water.”

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on December 20, 2007.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/122007.pdf?ref=smdp.com)