The E3 Effect
It has been a few weeks and E3 is now behind us. It seems like it was forever ago when we saw our favorite mustached plumber turn into a T-Rex but it really wasn’t. And in these past few weeks, I have been thinking. Why was this year such a disappointment? Now that I have my own podcast, I decided that I would watch all the conferences in order to give myself an advantage when Christopher La Porte and I talked about it on the show. This is something in all my years of gaming I have never done before. And for the most part I enjoyed the experience. It probably helped that I was watching Funhaus get drunk while I was watching and if I had known what was coming, I probably would have been getting drunk too. Why did this year’s E3 seem so flat compared to previous years? Well, here is me giving thoughts that probably no one cares about but I am giving them anyway.
So, the question comes down to why? Why were so many people disappointed this year? Sure, there were definitely some cool games that we saw and there were some amazing wins for some developers and companies. (Looking at you Nintendo) But there were also some major losses for others. (Looking at you Bethesda) Why? First, we can point to the obvious. There were some titles that we did not see that we have seen teasers and trailers for before E3 even happened. Something like a Last of Us 2 which we have seen a teaser release didn’t show its face in the slightest at E3. And one that I am personally salty about, Red Dead Redemption 2, decided not to put on the spurs and give us some more details. So, there was disappointment in that. But let us take it a step further.
A simple search of “Elder Scrolls 6” will bring you to a plethora of supposed leaks, rumors, and hopes to the next addition of Elder Scrolls, something that everyone (including myself) were hoping to see. Except, we didn’t and we were disappointed. I want to make a point by saying I love Bethesda and I love how they don’t announce games until they are ready, but this knowledge was swept away in the tide of Skyrim. Yes, Skyrim. Why are we still talking about Skyrim? Because Bethesda still is. Skyrim first released in 2011. Yup, 6 years ago. And we are still talking about it. Apparently, Bethesda doesn’t want to be come a Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Elder Scrolls, Fallout company, which makes since. Fallout 4 released in 2015 so makes sense. But 6 years? And this is the problem. We, the consumers. Yup, not Bethesda or other companies. Us.
“But Patrick, companies are corrupt and will do anything to get more money from us.” Shut up. Yeah, I said it. Fight me. Of course developers want money from us, it’s what they do. The problem is, and always has been, us the consumer. You see, before this year’s E3, the main beef the gaming community had with games is that developers would release them “unfinished.” I mean, look at all the grief Andromeda received. But developers started to release game after game, some maybe rushed, because we the consumers got hyped and demanded it. This is all my opinion but it makes sense. So we were sick of buying games that were unfinished. Developers do actually pay attention to that stuff, believe it or not. So, this year, they changed tactics. They showed games. For the most part, games that are ready or going to be soon. We didn’t see the huge projects like a Elder Scrolls or Dragon Age or Red Dead or Cyberpunk 2077. Because, this way, hype won’t be built for a game that who knows when will come out. And people are pissed. Because developers did what consumers wanted? Seems like they can’t win. Which is why I say the problem is us the consumer and our hype. Which is something we have talked about before. So maybe we should let creators create and just do our best to get off the hype train.
