Is E3 mostly behind closed doors?

I was talking to someone earlier today about E3. This person said to me "You do know that you only saw about ten percent of E3, most of it is behind closed doors." I've never been to E3 and I was wondering about the validity of this statement.

E3 is 100% the press conferences.

From what I know of the show there are a few closed off showings for the press here and there, but the idea that E3 is actually ten times larger than we think it is, and the press just don't talk about the other 90% is ridiculous. The show is almost 100% the stuff on the floor and the press conferences.

I would hope so. Don't want to let a draft in, or else you'll have papers flying all over the place. Pure chaos.

Thanks guys!

@migrations: That might be a more accurate statement for GDC than E3.

From what I know of the show there are a few closed off showings for the press here and there, but the idea that E3 is actually ten times larger than we think it is, and the press just don't talk about the other 90% is ridiculous. The show is almost 100% the stuff on the floor and the press conferences.

I don't know if I believe the 10% figure, but there is much more going on there than we see or would even want to see. A number of Bombcast guests have talked over the years about the "secret" E3, which includes presentations and demos for retailers and investors, among other things.

We eventually see or hear about pretty much everything that the press are shown. After all, the primary reason for showing games off to the press is for them to produce preview content for us, the consumers.

I'd wager that the stuff we don't see is more about the business side of the industry as opposed the games themselves. That stuff wouldn't be open to the press either. Deals get made and it's all very dry.

@migrations said:

I was talking to someone earlier today about E3. This person said to me "You do know that you only saw about ten percent of E3, most of it is behind closed doors." I've never been to E3 and I was wondering about the validity of this statement.

No, that's not really true. Most of our appointments are in those meeting rooms and other "behind closed doors" areas. So, if anything, we're typically showing you most of that stuff while ignoring much of the more open, noisy, and busy show floor.