Probably for the best. I remember hearing many many years ago that E3 was seriously distorting development, as tons of time would be spent making gorgeous E3 demos that basically did not work or...
Probably for the best.
I remember hearing many many years ago that E3 was seriously distorting development, as tons of time would be spent making gorgeous E3 demos that basically did not work or were little more than rendered videos, and thus eat away from actual real development.
Obviously this happened all the time, and it only got worse as E3 became less and less useful. In the modern age something like the steam next fest is vastly more useful to the consumer and the dev, and only an issue for the marketing team.
As far as promotion goes, every major publisher has their own digital showcases now. Effectively accomplishes the same goal but with way less cost and pressure on the devs to pump out half-baked...
As far as promotion goes, every major publisher has their own digital showcases now. Effectively accomplishes the same goal but with way less cost and pressure on the devs to pump out half-baked demos.
The real loss of E3's death is the excitement for games it generated in the gaming community as a whole. You just can't replicate that with separate showcases that happen a few weeks apart and have effectively no community participation or presence. Maybe Geoff will try to evolve The Game Awards to be a pseudo-E3 in terms of celebrating gaming (and it really should considering how awful of a job it did at that this year), but E3 was like Christmas in summer. Just a really exciting thing to look forward to, especially as a student.
I'd argue that The Game Awards is already an E3 in the winter lol, there were about.... 5 actual awards presented besides game of the year? I saw a comment somewhere that there was only about 10...
I'd argue that The Game Awards is already an E3 in the winter lol, there were about.... 5 actual awards presented besides game of the year? I saw a comment somewhere that there was only about 10 minutes of actual award speeches.
I love trailers and I enjoyed seeing all the games and was super hyped by Monster Hunter but yeah. I'm hoping that there are still big conferences around the summertime.
Just to play the other side for a moment, the one problem I have with the change is that there's one less opportunity to verify that there's a real game and it's not all just trailers. That being...
Just to play the other side for a moment, the one problem I have with the change is that there's one less opportunity to verify that there's a real game and it's not all just trailers. That being said, people have been complaining about non-gameplay video in these kinds of promotion for decades now and it's only been getting worse, so it's not actually that much of a difference.
Indeed. But I'll take the time to mention that these didn't just stop because E3 did. There are always deadlines, almost always stakeholders or publishers to appeal to, and those mini-crunches are...
Obviously this happened all the time, and it only got worse as E3 became less and less useful.
Indeed. But I'll take the time to mention that these didn't just stop because E3 did. There are always deadlines, almost always stakeholders or publishers to appeal to, and those mini-crunches are always stressful. You can't really escape that as long as you rely on others for money and livelihood.
RIP E3. I remember going crazy for some of the reveals way back in the day. It was always a week long thing and the Sony reveals always got me super hyped.
RIP E3. I remember going crazy for some of the reveals way back in the day. It was always a week long thing and the Sony reveals always got me super hyped.
I was low key hoping that all those talks of Popcap revigorating E3 would come to fruition one day, but I think COVID was truly the final nail in the coffin for not just E3, but the more general...
I was low key hoping that all those talks of Popcap revigorating E3 would come to fruition one day, but I think COVID was truly the final nail in the coffin for not just E3, but the more general idea of games conferences as a platforms to celebrate the games industry.
Yeah, for those who only cared about game reveals, the new formats of direct and even The Game Awards works even better. Arguably the majority. no "fluff" spread around days of conferences as opposed to a 3 hour show or a 40 minute direct that focuses only on games. But I think that doesn't fully capture the spirit of E3.
(Wall of text incoming: feel free to skip to the end for a TLDR)
First, as the antithesis of this, TGA 2023 had the GOTY winners (in a very packed, competitive race) rushed off stage in under a minute. Apparently because TGA went 40 minutes over their runtime, and from what I heard: even if you timed every single dev speech it would not accumulate to 40 minutes. The venue overbooked on so many trailers and especially ads that they left no time for the actual "winners" to even grab their awards on stage and immediately leave. If nothing else, I guess it does encapsulate 2023's trend of excellent games and mass layoffs.
This is why TGA will never be an "E3" in my heart right there. E3 was undoubtedly just one big ad itself and it wasn't shy about celebrity appearances or just plain odd choices of presentation. But it always left time for the actual people in the industry making and managing games to talk about how far they came and what they were excited for in the future. It wasn't just a sizzle reel of flashy CGI trailers like a direct (although yes, the later E3's had that feeling) but this mass venue of passion, hopes, exchanges, and just plain ol' hype.
This could be my own filter bubble, but I don't really see many people "hyped" about Summer Games Fest or TGA, the two things that apparently "replace E3". Just some place to stop by and hover around for reveals with some G4-style faux hype commentary in between from those who peek into the creation of those games. Maybe G4 died for good reason (note: I never really watched G4. I'm not even sure if I could watch G4 on the basic cable I had until I was 12 or so); games were special in that the creators spoke directly to the audience instead of having some layer of publisher, distributor, or social membrane in-between.
The Oscars (which TGA is clearly trying to emulate) is/was exciting because it's one of the few times where celebrities at least feel a bit less on the script compared to all their various interviews or whatnot. But games tended to be much closer to the audience, so that effect is lost. The only recourse is that maybe some lesser known titles would finally get some recognition, but then TGA decides to sizzle reel over half the awards it chooses out. Sorry, Sea of Stars, you were great and you get a nice little trophy but that's all. not even a fancy mini-trailer showcasing what you are or some face(s) to put the game on. Teleprompter text and highlighting it is.
And of course, it always is entertaining, in good or bad ways when this stuff is done live and not on some pre-recorded, highly edited stream. I don't think I need to explain the hype reveal moments, the cringy moments on-stage, or the unintentionally viral moments ("My Body is Ready" anyone? For a more modern example: the Ikumi Nakamura segment showcasing Ghostwire Tokyo was probably one of the last of these moments). There are plenty of compilations on Youtube you can search through for those examples.
I'll also mention from the dev side that this was one of the biggest places to network, something that is pretty much impossible to do online organically. E3 and GDC are some of the only places you'll really see devs from all over the world fly out, and even GDC is waning in this regard. If you wanted to get a chance to pitch or simply introduce yourself to an EU or Japanese studio, you had to be there. In some ways, the world is closing off by having these international conferences fade to memory, and shifting (IMO, regressing) to the usual "who yells loudest or is lucky enough to go viral" spiel, instead of having an intimate moment between professionals to show what you're proud of, without fancy SEO techniques or ad services.
So yeah. Excuse the huge rant above, but in all those other "E3 is dead" threads around the net I always, always, hear those dismissals of "E3 was just an ad anyway" or "we don't need E3 anymore we got TGA/SGF/Directs" or "There was nothing special about E3 anyway I just want game reveals". I just wanted to vent out all those years of readings right here, since this may be the last time I really get to talk about E3 without it being discussed as this artifact of history.
E3 was a special age and we probably won't ever truly get such a thing again, at least not at that scale. I have my own personal Biases about Geoff Keighley, but I also genuinely just think the formats of those shows he hosts isn't "the new E3", not by a country mile. E3 was this mix of passion, connection, and genuine reaching out to fellow devs and gamers alike, a time to celebrate, to be excited, and to sometimes shake our heads in bewilderment. And that era may have come to a close. Maybe for good, but I wouldn't bet on that.
Probably for the best.
I remember hearing many many years ago that E3 was seriously distorting development, as tons of time would be spent making gorgeous E3 demos that basically did not work or were little more than rendered videos, and thus eat away from actual real development.
Obviously this happened all the time, and it only got worse as E3 became less and less useful. In the modern age something like the steam next fest is vastly more useful to the consumer and the dev, and only an issue for the marketing team.
As far as promotion goes, every major publisher has their own digital showcases now. Effectively accomplishes the same goal but with way less cost and pressure on the devs to pump out half-baked demos.
The real loss of E3's death is the excitement for games it generated in the gaming community as a whole. You just can't replicate that with separate showcases that happen a few weeks apart and have effectively no community participation or presence. Maybe Geoff will try to evolve The Game Awards to be a pseudo-E3 in terms of celebrating gaming (and it really should considering how awful of a job it did at that this year), but E3 was like Christmas in summer. Just a really exciting thing to look forward to, especially as a student.
I'd argue that The Game Awards is already an E3 in the winter lol, there were about.... 5 actual awards presented besides game of the year? I saw a comment somewhere that there was only about 10 minutes of actual award speeches.
I love trailers and I enjoyed seeing all the games and was super hyped by Monster Hunter but yeah. I'm hoping that there are still big conferences around the summertime.
Just to play the other side for a moment, the one problem I have with the change is that there's one less opportunity to verify that there's a real game and it's not all just trailers. That being said, people have been complaining about non-gameplay video in these kinds of promotion for decades now and it's only been getting worse, so it's not actually that much of a difference.
Indeed. But I'll take the time to mention that these didn't just stop because E3 did. There are always deadlines, almost always stakeholders or publishers to appeal to, and those mini-crunches are always stressful. You can't really escape that as long as you rely on others for money and livelihood.
RIP E3. I remember going crazy for some of the reveals way back in the day. It was always a week long thing and the Sony reveals always got me super hyped.
I was low key hoping that all those talks of Popcap revigorating E3 would come to fruition one day, but I think COVID was truly the final nail in the coffin for not just E3, but the more general idea of games conferences as a platforms to celebrate the games industry.
Yeah, for those who only cared about game reveals, the new formats of direct and even The Game Awards works even better. Arguably the majority. no "fluff" spread around days of conferences as opposed to a 3 hour show or a 40 minute direct that focuses only on games. But I think that doesn't fully capture the spirit of E3.
(Wall of text incoming: feel free to skip to the end for a TLDR)
First, as the antithesis of this, TGA 2023 had the GOTY winners (in a very packed, competitive race) rushed off stage in under a minute. Apparently because TGA went 40 minutes over their runtime, and from what I heard: even if you timed every single dev speech it would not accumulate to 40 minutes. The venue overbooked on so many trailers and especially ads that they left no time for the actual "winners" to even grab their awards on stage and immediately leave. If nothing else, I guess it does encapsulate 2023's trend of excellent games and mass layoffs.
This is why TGA will never be an "E3" in my heart right there. E3 was undoubtedly just one big ad itself and it wasn't shy about celebrity appearances or just plain odd choices of presentation. But it always left time for the actual people in the industry making and managing games to talk about how far they came and what they were excited for in the future. It wasn't just a sizzle reel of flashy CGI trailers like a direct (although yes, the later E3's had that feeling) but this mass venue of passion, hopes, exchanges, and just plain ol' hype.
This could be my own filter bubble, but I don't really see many people "hyped" about Summer Games Fest or TGA, the two things that apparently "replace E3". Just some place to stop by and hover around for reveals with some G4-style faux hype commentary in between from those who peek into the creation of those games. Maybe G4 died for good reason (note: I never really watched G4. I'm not even sure if I could watch G4 on the basic cable I had until I was 12 or so); games were special in that the creators spoke directly to the audience instead of having some layer of publisher, distributor, or social membrane in-between.
The Oscars (which TGA is clearly trying to emulate) is/was exciting because it's one of the few times where celebrities at least feel a bit less on the script compared to all their various interviews or whatnot. But games tended to be much closer to the audience, so that effect is lost. The only recourse is that maybe some lesser known titles would finally get some recognition, but then TGA decides to sizzle reel over half the awards it chooses out. Sorry, Sea of Stars, you were great and you get a nice little trophy but that's all. not even a fancy mini-trailer showcasing what you are or some face(s) to put the game on. Teleprompter text and highlighting it is.
And of course, it always is entertaining, in good or bad ways when this stuff is done live and not on some pre-recorded, highly edited stream. I don't think I need to explain the hype reveal moments, the cringy moments on-stage, or the unintentionally viral moments ("My Body is Ready" anyone? For a more modern example: the Ikumi Nakamura segment showcasing Ghostwire Tokyo was probably one of the last of these moments). There are plenty of compilations on Youtube you can search through for those examples.
I'll also mention from the dev side that this was one of the biggest places to network, something that is pretty much impossible to do online organically. E3 and GDC are some of the only places you'll really see devs from all over the world fly out, and even GDC is waning in this regard. If you wanted to get a chance to pitch or simply introduce yourself to an EU or Japanese studio, you had to be there. In some ways, the world is closing off by having these international conferences fade to memory, and shifting (IMO, regressing) to the usual "who yells loudest or is lucky enough to go viral" spiel, instead of having an intimate moment between professionals to show what you're proud of, without fancy SEO techniques or ad services.
So yeah. Excuse the huge rant above, but in all those other "E3 is dead" threads around the net I always, always, hear those dismissals of "E3 was just an ad anyway" or "we don't need E3 anymore we got TGA/SGF/Directs" or "There was nothing special about E3 anyway I just want game reveals". I just wanted to vent out all those years of readings right here, since this may be the last time I really get to talk about E3 without it being discussed as this artifact of history.
E3 was a special age and we probably won't ever truly get such a thing again, at least not at that scale. I have my own personal Biases about Geoff Keighley, but I also genuinely just think the formats of those shows he hosts isn't "the new E3", not by a country mile. E3 was this mix of passion, connection, and genuine reaching out to fellow devs and gamers alike, a time to celebrate, to be excited, and to sometimes shake our heads in bewilderment. And that era may have come to a close. Maybe for good, but I wouldn't bet on that.
I thought that happened in 2020, and I'm the target audience, so it may be for the best.