A quick google search revealed that E3 this year drew 68,400 attendees. The various video game podcasts I listen to all proclaimed that this sea of people was a huge issue and should have resulted in a terrible experience for all the public that paid to go.

I felt the complaining was a bit strange because even though I've never been to an E3 at the Los Angeles Convention Center I have been to a little thing called the Anime Expo. It just so happens that the Anime Expo also takes place at the Los Angeles Convention Center. The difference is that last year there were over 100,000 people in attendance at AX and a good portion of those people are cosplaying.

Is the E3 staff really bad at managing the space and crowd congestion at E3 or is the anime crowd simply a hardier group that can deal better?

If you listen to most of the complaints this is pretty much exactly what many people are saying. That they let in an additional 15000 people from the public without actually adjusting the layout of the showfloor to accommodate those people.

I also go to Anime Expo and have been keeping its numbers of people in mind, too. The biggest difference between AX and E3 is that AX utilizes practically all the space in the LA convention center. E3's public portion, on the other hand, utilized the West and South Hall exclusively. Well, there was that off-site "E3 coliseum" thing but I never ended up checking that out so have no clue if it was popular or not.

So while there were way less people at E3 2017 than AX 2016, those (public) people were squashed into the two main halls and the hallway between them. The upper floor, concourse hall, side rooms, etc were all basically exclusively press areas. Some public folks did walk around there, but left when they realized there was nothing to do in those areas.

As for myself, I didn't find the 68k people a terrible hindrance to getting around. I was late to a few meetings, sure, but that's almost always the case. Now, if you bought your way in and attempted to cover the show then that would be a significantly tougher task. Without meetings you'd have been stuck waiting in way too many lines in West or South hall.

The only real shocking moment of E3 was prior to the show floor opening on Tuesday. For whatever reason the E3 staff let everyone spill out in a massive blob outside of South Hall. Some people even ended up standing on Figueroa street which was absolutely dangerous.

You're comparing a convention that is put together to accommodate the public being let in and one that is not. There's also the fact that gaming also appeals to a much wider audience so the camaraderie you'll find at something like an anime convention isn't there.

The camaraderie you mentioned is interesting. I thought that events like PAX had a super friendly atmosphere. Then that's not the case?

@golguin: It's not so much that people aren't being friendly, but that at a more focused convention, you get the feeling that you can have an intimate conversation about the thing you love with just about anyone you see.

@golguin:

Poor planning. There seemed to be a lot of wasted space, especially in the hall where Microsoft was located. I already expected to not play everything I wanted but the lines were horrendous especially on the first day. I expressed my opinions in the survey they sent out.

Dunno if you've ever worked a trade show in a convention center, but large crowds really can majorly impact your ability to get stuff done. Getting to appointments, finding people, having networking conversations, stumbling across new vendors that you didn't plan on , getting any necessary equipment you need inside and monitoring it, even using the restroom and getting food. Crowds just slows it down and adds a lot of stress that you don't need when you are working in a tight time window. And that's they key, your time is very valuable in that scenario so anything that wastes it is very expensive in terms of lost opportunities.

E3 was a professional event, now it's some sort of Hybrid. I can understand why professionals who have worked it for years would be cheesed off. I would too in their shoes.

One is a public event, the other is (or was) a professional event. I understand that E3 needed to change, but I absolutely hate how it's becoming just another convention.

The ESA must be losing a ton from abandoned booth space. Public attendees is the only way I can imagine that being propped up.

Looking at numbers from the past years, they've had between 60,000 to 70,000 a few times, but that was before they really cracked down on who they let in, back in 2007 or so.

Comparing this year to last year, there were 18,100 more attendees this year. If the show runners didn't make the necessary accommodations in spacing, crowd control, signage, etc., then I can see how this could be a big hindrance to getting around and navigating the show floor. Especially if those people from the general public weren't initially told what areas would and wouldn't be open to them.

I will say that the initial complaining was pretty bad, but as the week went on, they (at least the GB folks) made sure to specify that they were complaining about how the crowd was being handled by E3, rather than the crowd itself.

Edited to add this important bit of info: Did you know that this was Ben Pack's first E3? You might not have heard that otherwise.

A little update now that I am at AX 2017. Line stretches for a mile and wraps in on itself. Hours just to go into con with badge.