The Electronic Entertainment Expo, the videogame industry’s biggest trade fair, came to a close in Los Angeles on Thursday after three days of hype and digital dreams-made-reality.
And, perhaps as a sign of the increasingly blurred lines between gaming and the rest of the entertainment industry, there were plenty of celebrities on hand to promote the latest games – or just have a go at playing them.
Kanye West didn't have to wait in a long queue like most of the attendees. The rapper surprised the crowd when he slipped into the Los Angeles Convention Center on Wednesday to check out such games as Uncharted 4: A Thief's End, Halo 5: Guardians, Cuphead and Star Wars: Battlefront.
Patrick Bach, executive producer for the Star Wars multiplayer combat game, tweeted a photo with himself and the Gold Digger singer.
“He liked it,” Bach said. “I think. It was really quick.”
A spokesman for the Entertainment Software Association, which organises E3, says West was admitted as a celebrity guest after his people contacted ESA ahead of the expo.
Transformers star Josh Duhamel made E3 a "take your kid to work" day. He brought his 21-month-old son Axl to the Activision booth to see the latest version of Skylanders. "It is unbelievable. Truly sensory overload," he said.
The actor voices a character in Skylanders Superchargers, which adds vehicles to the game's mix.
“I’m trying to teach him that this is dad. This is dad playing High Volt,” Duhamel said. “He’s like: ‘Naw, man. That’s not you. ... You’re not cool enough for that.’”
Sin City and Top Five actress Rosario Dawson popped into the Activision booth, to play Call of Duty: Black Ops III. She described the game, set in 2065, as "the future of war. It's drones, controllers. It's a whole other world. It's technology on a whole other level."
Dawson – seen most recently in Netflix's Daredevil series, based on the Marvel superhero – said she just has to keep herself from getting too intense when playing games.
“I’ve had that moment. You’re, like, tweaking at 4 o’clock in the morning,” she said. “My brother is like: ‘Go to sleep. You’re going to give yourself a heart attack.’”
