Video game soundtracks have become a major showcase for some musicians, so it makes sense that officials of the gaming industry expo, E3, have announced a concert series in conjunction with the new public festival portion of the event, E3 Live.
The lineup includes Steve Aoki, Wiz Khalifa, Big Boi and Empire of the Sun as headliners of the event, which takes place June 14-16, according to the LA Times. It's all going down at a massive six-story pop-up venue at L.A. LIVE that will be built in the shape of an arcade machine, complete with a 30-foot high LED screen that will show live video game play and elaborate visuals to accompany performances. Keeping with the arcade theme, the venue will also contain an entire retro-styled arcade room, lounges, vendor demo stations and, of course, plenty of products by event sponsor Doritos.
If all of this sounds a bit familiar it might be because Doritos assembled a similarly splashy stage at the South By Southwest festival in 2014, which saw Lady Gaga and others performing inside a giant chip vending machine. The construction became the subject of some backlash from critics who considered it emblematic of corporate sponsorships run amok at a once-indie fest. It remains to be seen if the gamer crowd will feel the same concern. Either way, bringing in big name pop headliners may be a bid to attract a broader audience to E3 which, as The New York Times reports, is fighting to stay relevant as the conference itself and the gaming industry in general are rapidly shifting.