Someone brought up a point that when people miss E3, they’re actually missing the pace at which tech/industry moved all those years ago. But now everything has slowed down so much that bringing E3 (or specifically live press conferences) back wouldn’t be productive. Do you agree?
Not even the speed. They like the celebration. It was like a movie premiere for your Christmas wishlist. Stars would walk the red carpet, there would be flashing lights, pounding music, glitz and glamor.
Maybe it was more comparable to something like the Cannes Film Festival. Now that doesn't quite line up, because Cannes is more often about films as art, and E3 always really hit hard on popcorn blockbusters. But still. Everyone who's who would all gather in one place and scratch their chins and say "hm, video games."
Sure, some of that is pacing, but it's also just, like... effort. Part of the reason I don't care about Ubisoft or Electronic Arts anymore is because when they announce a new game it feels so flat. EA in particular; those last few E3s they would get up on stage and kind of show nothing except their guaranteed slate of sports games for that year and a few greybox tech demos of things that weren't even guaranteed to come out. And now they don't even do that.
And part of the reason some of these E3 replacements struggled and failed is because a playlist of trailers by itself is boring. I can get that on Youtube.
And industry people will say that it's also because E3 was when a lot of actual business was conducted, too. It was flashy but it was also, at its heart, sort of a retailer convention. Contracts were being signed inside of conference rooms. That's why you'd see guys like Shigeru Miyamoto, Hideo Kojima, Phil Spencer, Ed Boon, Tim Schafer, Shinji Mikami, etc. They were there to do business, but it meant a chance to poke their heads in for interviews and having fun.
It made the whole thing feel eventful. What doesn't feel eventful is when EA announces Battlefield 6, by itself, in isolation. Everybody wants to be independent whether they can carry themselves independently or not. It is sad.
We do still have things like Summer Games Fest, we have Playstation, Xbox, and Nintendo Directs. Games still get announced in big batches, but they lack the wrestling main event bombast. They lack having Shigeru Miyamoto rise out of the darkness wielding a sword and shield. Now it's a lot of prerecorded video of one or two people standing in their office waiting room telling us they are "so excited for what we're about to show you." Zero sauce. Zero razzle-dazzle.
That's what I miss.
