Phew! So, after two weeks and two full-blown conventions, we're back at the Capcom offices. It was pretty crazy, and a lot of hard work, but we pulled it off and both E3 and Comic-Con were smashing successes. Now that I've had a day or two to collect myself after the insanity that is Comic-Con, I thought I'd give you a little look at my time down in San Diego.

I arrived a few days after the convention had started, so I was greeted by throngs of attendees who swarmed the exhibit hall. Views like this were common and stretched all the way to the other side of the convention hall. Thankfully, the elevated Street Fighter IV boxing ring was a welcome sancutary amongst the crowds.

Of course, the SFIV ring was plenty busy, with a constrant stream of players filling the 12 arcade machines we had available. Lines to play easily wrapped around the ring, and we even had repeat visitors who would line right back up after finishing a round.

The twice daily tournaments drew big crowds too. Each day at 11AM and 3PM, fans competed against each other in a multi-round tournament to decide the best player. Things got pretty heated in some of the later rounds, as the final players were pretty evenly matched. With Seth's commentary and huge flat-panel screens to watch the action, the tournaments made for some great dama.

In all, the Capcom booth was consistetly packed with people either shopping at the Capcom store, playing SF4, getting an autograph from Ono-san, or demoing our roster of upcoming games. To say it was crowded is an understatement.

For those of you who visited Comic-Con, sights like these are pretty familiar. So, I thought I'd give you a little peek of the less public side of the convention - teardown. Going from a fully-packed convention floor with equipment and people to essentially an empty room in a little over 6 hours may sound impossible, but those are the rules. So the minute the door sclose and the stragglers are kicked out, we're off to work tearing stuff down.

 

Taking apart a pretty complicated booth like ours is hard enough, but with a strict deadline, everything has to be done efficiently. Boxes had to be packed, stacked and ordered properly on pallets to be shrink-wrapped and sent back to Capcom HQ, kiosks had to be disassembled, and more fragile items like TVs and consoles were packed in specially padded containers. It all made for a lot of heavy lifting.

Still, with our crack team of Capcom employees, a basket of snacks to keep our energy going,  and some help from our movers, we cleaned up and were ready to go hours before our 11PM deadline. So, we celebrated like anyone would after a long day, by stuffing our face with Mexican food and margaritas! Olé!