Before you start going crazy and yelling at your screen, hear me out.
E3 came around once again, and the crazy fan-peeps (fan-boys is completely sexist! Girls are crazy about games too) went ballistic about the lack of announcements, games not coming out this year and all other types of annoying complaints that left me wondering, do these people not know the industry they are so passionate about?
What we do know about E3 is that it — USED to be THE conference in which the big 3 (Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo) announced all of their new projects and games for the coming year. But now with other studios like Bethesda, Ubisoft and Square Enix holding their own shows at the annual show, the big ones have started to use other game conferences like Paris Games Show, Tokyo Games Show and Pax, E3 is no longer the be all and end all of gaming announcements.
Back in 2013 Nintendo announced that they would not hold a traditional conference as it had in the past, it now would instead hold a pre-recorded video event in place of their spots. They have continued it and it seems to work for the Japanese giant as they don’t have the technological issues of live gaming demo fails and waiting for audience reactions. The formula has worked and as a result we now got a constant stream of Nintendo Direct video’s all year announcing new games, amiibo’s and projects.
Sony followed suit last year, announcing the first Playstation Experience in December 2014. The event proved to be a massive hit with its fans and is set to be happening this year and a now annual event for the company. Here they announced new game titles, hands on gameplay and developer interviews, thus not needing to go through absolutely everything at E3.
In August last year, Xbox teamed up with Gamescom to host their first event. They used the event to announce exclusive titles and console territory expansion to tremendous success. It is interesting to note that nothing has been locked in for this year so far, so we will have to see if they follow suit this year.
So we don’t need to decide “who won E3” or rant and rave about what games we did and didn’t see because E3 is no longer the be all and end all of gaming announcements. Through other events, direct videos and fan based conventions, video game companies are more in touch and consistently conversing with gamers than ever before. In the age of information, we are being fed information all year so getting everything from one place is no longer required. Not only this but it also helps advertise the other conventions that happen around the world and add some flavour and colour to gaming announcements.
If you are upset or angry about the supposed lack of announcements at E3 this year, don’t be! There is plenty more gaming goodness to come in 2015 and be sure to keep checking back here at Novastream as we bring you the latest in gaming news and reviews!
