The Electronic Entertainment Expo is in full swing this week in Los Angeles. It's one of the biggest video game industry events in the world, and millions of gamers spend hours poring over news, previews and videos for games they hope to get their hands on soon.
Dallas-based ScrewAttack, a popular video destination for gaming coverage, is no stranger to E3. This will be their ninth year covering it since their inception in 2006. So when YouTube decided to go big with their E3 coverage this year it made sense to include ScrewAttack as a partner. After all, they've been doing this "video coverage" thing since before YouTube was the juggernaut that it is now.
"ScrewAttack is one of the originators and innovators in online video," ScrewAttack's Craig Skistimas tells me. "We've been fortunate enough to set a lot of trends in the gaming space and have continued to innovate for going on 10 years now. We just passed 2 million subscribers on YouTube and have amassed nearly 2 billion views of our content in our lifetime. It's been a wild ride!"
Skistimas' team will still be putting stuff on the ScrewAttack YouTube channel, but he's also been appearing on YouTube's official E3 streams. He appeared alongside game journalist superstar Geoff Keighley on Monday after the Microsoft press conference, and he's contributing to the live coverage of the show floor as well. "Being on the front page of YouTube is a pretty cool opportunity for ScrewAttack," he told me via e-mail. "I can't wait."
"While this will be our ninth year attending and covering E3, this year is really cool for us because we're doing something we've never done on a scale we've never done it on," he said. "We always want to push the boundaries and fortunately partnering with companies like YouTube and Rooster Teeth are allowing us to do that. To think that ScrewAttack, a company that started on my parents' kitchen countertop, is now playing a role in the biggest event in the industry is really amazing."
The aforementioned Rooster Teeth is an Austin-based company that, like ScrewAttack, has been in the business of videos about video games for a very long time. They, too, are playing a big role in YouTube's coverage of the show. Another Texan, Denton's Patrick Scott Patterson, is also at the show and will be doing stuff on social media.
"Texas truly is a hotbed of talented folks in the video game industry whether it's development or on the influencer/content creation side of things," Skistimas says. "A lot of my team at ScrewAttack, myself included, graduated from UNT, and pretty much everyone is from Texas. In the grand scheme of things, California is certainly the mecca when it comes to video game development but Texas is right behind it. So many talented companies are here and I'm sure that's only going to continue to grow as time marches on. It's cheaper to do business here and the cost and quality of living is just so much better."
On the development side of things, Plano-based Gearbox Software is at E3 showing their next big game, Battleborn, while Richardson-based Id Software made waves by publicly unveiling the next game in their iconic Doom series.
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Even though covering E3 is nothing new at this point, it's still an exciting moment for Skistimas and his team. "In 2006, I literally hid in a bathroom until right before the show floor opened so I could be one of the first to try the Wii," he tells me. "In 2015 I hope I don't have to hide in any toilet stalls. But really, if I was having a conversation with the 12-year-old version of myself and 12-year-old Craig knew I was just at E3 let alone hosting something at it, I'm pretty sure we'd give each other a big high five."
If YouTube has proven anything, it's that video content -- especially of video games -- is a big deal that continues to gain popularity. As sites like ScrewAttack have grown a lot of people have hoped to follow in Skistimas' footsteps in making a career out of covering video games. "A lot of people ask me, 'How can I do what you do?' My answer is always, 'Just do it!' All the resources are there for you to do whatever you want in this world. Unlike when ScrewAttack launched, technology is affordable and the ability to grow your audience quickly through social media is all right there for you. With that said, if any talented creators are looking for their first break, they can always reach out to me. Maybe they'll be the next big thing on ScrewAttack, YouTube and video games!"
