Los Angeles Convention Center

Kevin looked over the blueprints. "Standard isolation zones, in line with the organizer's specifications—"

"EA wants more booth space than anyone else. They won't say it beforehand, but once they're on-site, they'll use partition boards to squeeze outward. They're the local tyrant on American soil, and in these little branches and twigs that still have no small impact, we can't let them exploit too many loopholes," Nakayama Takuya said. "Confirm with them in advance where the red lines are. Don't wait until they've moved in to start wrangling."

Kevin wrote that down and did not argue.

Nakayama Takuya did not spend too much time in Petri Hall. It was the area IDSA had arranged for small and midsize developers, with a simple layout. He walked through it once, asked about two layout details, and was basically satisfied.

The last stop was Kentia Hall, located on the basement level of the South Hall.

This section had been something he had specifically suggested adding back then.

In the original E3 plans, the basement level had basically been an awkward place—people would not walk down there, exhibitors were unwilling to go down there, and the result was that it sat empty and wasted.

His suggestion to IDSA at the time had been very direct: leave the basement level to peripheral merchandise manufacturers—Bandai, Sanrio, Takara, Hasbro, Mattel—and turn it into an on-site souvenir shop, dedicated to selling limited products licensed by the various console makers and developers.

For IDSA, it meant extra revenue from attracting exhibitors; for peripheral manufacturers, it was a chance to squeeze into the main exhibition's spotlight; and for consumers, exhibition-exclusive goods had never lacked people willing to fight over them.

The elevator doors opened. The lights on the basement level had not all been adjusted yet, and a few were