Gamecock to Block E3 with E.I.E.I.O.

Indie-oriented publisher Gamecock has stated its intentions to plan an independent game expo held concurrently with the upcoming E3 Business & Media Summit. The laborious full name of Gamecock's tentative event is E.I.E.I.O. - Expo for Interactive Entertainment: Independent and Original - Fun Fest 2007. E.I.E.I.O. is a response to the E3 exhibitor list on which we reported earlier this week. The list "noticeably lacked independent developers," a Gamecock representative pointed out to Shacknews. Gamecock is headed up by CEO Mike Wilson (pictured left), president Harry Miller, and CFO Rick Stults, reprising their executive roles held at the now- defunct Gathering of Developers. As a small publisher, Gamecock necessarily pays out lower developer advances than their larger-scale competitors, but offers higher royalties as well as the desirable perk of allowing studios to retain their own intellectual property, a less common provision among major publishers. Five games have been announced across numerous platforms. An early proposal of the potential Gamecock E.I.E.I.O. event, which is unrelated to the E3 Summit, was sent to members of the press, including Shacknews, this week. It reads as follows:

Gamecock is all about promoting the artists and bringing original games into this bloated and originality-starved industry. Gamecock is talking about plans for an E.I.E.I.O. - Expo for Interactive Entertainment: Independent and Original - Fun Fest 2007 - to be held on the same days as E3. What do you think? It would be great to have an event that supports the "uninvited" - the industry's best and most talented studios.