As I walked the floor of the LA Convention Center on Tuesday as part of E3, I noticed something was ... off. I could not figure out what it was but later on it hit me. I had not seen a "booth babe" since I walked in the doors.
Oh sure, there were women at nearly all of the E3 2013 exhibitors but they were mostly in casuals wearing t-shirts with their company"s logo on it. This year at E3, we spotted only a few women who could qualify as a "booth babe". Namely, they were either not wearing a lot of clothes or they had some costumes. To be fair, you could still find booth babes like the ones I mentioned at E3; you just had to go looking for them. The Nyko game accessories team had their usual outfits on, as you can see above.
SnailUSA, which is a publisher of MMO titles, had quite a few women dressed in elaborate outfits, as you can see below.
There were even a few male booth models this year, such as the one promoting Rome: Total War Part II ...
... or as part of the zombie horde prompting Dead Rising 3.
Even the World of Tanks exhibit outside the convention center from Wargaming.net had only a few women. Wargaming.net"s large inside booth was booth babe free.
All in all, it looks like a lot of game publishers don"t feel hiring booth babes to help promote their games at E3 is a good investment. Whether or not you think it"s a good or a bad thing, it"s looking like the "golden age" of the hired booth babe at the trade show is finally coming to an end.
Images via Sony, Microsoft and Paramount
Neowin"s E3 2013 coverage is sponsored by Alienware