Sequels, such as Tomb Raider III, starring the aforementioned Lara Croft, were the order of the day. Taking the real-time virtual Lara chatting with visitors into account, Tomb Raider manufacturer Eidos spent hundreds of thousand of dollars on ingraining the image of Lara Croft into our minds for yet another year. Now, with a book by Douglas Coupland about everyone's favorite strangely proportioned character forthcoming, she will simply not be going away anytime soon. New versions of Duke Nuke'em, Tekken and Mortal Kombat perpetuated the parade of sequels. Again, like the movie and music industries, to which it is so closely linked, the games industry releases piles of dross every week while chasing that elusive hit.
Hits are few and far between and difficult to predict.
Online gaming was one of the few areas with any genuinely new products, exciting ideas and big money deals. Everyone is talking about it, everyone had his or her check book out, but no one has quite got it sussed yet. Expect big announcements from most of the serious players soon. So here was a show that was big and bloated, a grand recycling of successful formulas and ripoffs of popular genres. Licensing ruled as large as the stands themselves.