E3 2021: Did Publishers Stop Selling Dreams, or Did Users Stop Dreaming? - editorial

E3 2021

A few years from now, while sipping something in a faded suburban bar watching helplessly as the summer explodes, we will end up looking at each other from the edge of an opaque glass of beer asking ourselves one question: how did this happen? Who made it possible, who allowed it? Who killed the dream fair?

Exaggerations aside, it is clear to everyone that E3 has irremediably changed, that it has almost given up on its true original purpose. Let's be honest, the Losangelina event has never wanted to represent the test of public expectations, that is something that has only recently emerged. Rather, E3 was once tasked with providing its audience with a vivid and brilliant vision of the future of video games, it was a keyhole from which to glimpse the grandeur and magnificence of what was to come next, no matter if that. sooner or later the illusion would have been broken.

Don't get us wrong, we don't think E3 should embody the triumph of vaporware, however the event has long since taken on an aseptic declination, far from the glories of the past in which hundreds of players screamed at the top of their lungs in the theaters of Los Angeles at the announcement of Twilight Princess or the appearance of Kratos during the reveal of the new God of War.

Sony has always bet a lot in giving dreams to the audience during its conferences. What has changed? Where does this slow, gradual change come from? Before E3 itself, it is the communication surrounding video games that has changed. For some time now it seems that publishers, when they turn to the public to present their products, are walking among the bombs of a boundless minefield. When the most important media event of the year arrives, which for companies often coincides with the Electronic Entertainment Expo, they increasingly choose to rely on promotional materials that go in the direction of concreteness, in an attempt to convince an audience that with the passing of winters has become more and more skeptical and demanding.

This trend is so dominant that it reaches the paradox, as it happened in 2018, when Nintendo dedicated more than half of its Direct to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, speaking of the game for about 25 minutes. The presentation was certainly interesting, at least for a fan of the famous Nintendo fighting game, but he stubbornly focused on the substance, failing to demonstrate the character and magnetism necessary to engage the public. In other words, the "locura" was missing, that sprinkle of madness that tinges everything with sympathy, color, sequins.

At E3 2015 Sony drove the audience crazy with a very powerful 1-2, the announcement of the remake of Final Fantasy VII followed later by the reveal of Shenmue III.

Watch on YouTube. It must also be said that many publishers, the big N in the first place, have shown that they want to give up contact with the public voluntarily, and without it being tangled up that much. Sony for example, after the triumphal E3s of 2015 and 2016, withdrew to a stronghold of cold and impersonal State of Play, which often suffered from the absence of a stage and a frontman to occupy it with his charisma. Following the abandonment of E3, the communication regarding the great exclusives for PS4 and PS5 has become more concrete and this does not necessarily represent a bad thing, but in our opinion no digital event will ever be comparable to some conferences of Sony's recent past. , like that of 2015 which saw the stands literally implode due to the announcements relating to the expected return of Shenmue and the remake of Final Fantasy VII.

Those two products, for different reasons, would then have failed to meet some of the expectations of the fans, yet at that moment this detail didn't matter at all. It was not important to worry about the quality of the final product, in a single instant the dream of millions of players around the world had materialized there, before their eyes, and that magic was too powerful to be dented by suspicion and cynicism.

Speaking of cynicism, perhaps the communication that revolves around video games has changed for a reason, for a specific reason that has inevitably accelerated its transformation. Probably, E3 is no longer the same because we changed before it. Let's look at the very recent presentation of Horizon Forbidden West, the second chapter of the IP conceived by Guerrilla which recently offered itself to the public during a dedicated State of Play that anticipated E3 by a few weeks.

Uno of the key moments in E3 history: Konami announces Metal Gear Solid 2, thrilling viewers.

Watch on YouTube. The visual spectacle offered by this new chapter is stunning, especially considering its cross-gen nature, but this was not enough to convince an increasingly demanding audience of players, the same one that claims that every production is "bigger and better" than the previous one. If a title does not propose a clear revolution, a detachment from the past, if it fails to innovate the canons of the genre by setting new standards for the years to come, that game does not deserve our enthusiasm.

Digging into historical memory of the event, do you remember the unexpected announcement of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty at E3 in 2000? Those moments will forever remain etched in the minds of those who were lucky enough to participate in that edition, but this happened because the trailer was able to convince, to review all the elements that would have made this title the masterpiece that all of us do we remember? Not exactly.

At the time, we were content with the prospective idea of ​​finding ourselves sooner or later again immersed in the universe imagined by Hideo Kojima, and that was all we needed to know. Thinking about it, perhaps E3 has changed because video game communication has changed first, which in turn had to reflect a transformation of its target audience.

The public has demanded more and more concreteness from publishers , but E3, in the first place, has always been a costume event more than a test case for public expectations. Most Read Now

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Amid controversy, scandals and controversies that are multiplying in the video game industry, it is we ourselves who have lost the ability to to dream. It wasn't entirely our fault, as some companies have proven over the years how deceptive and bordering on fraudulent marketing that surrounds a video game can be. However, the current situation is dangerously close to an impasse, in which if a publisher shows a game without relying on various frills, people inevitably end up with boredom complaining about the absence of elements capable of making it dream. On the contrary, if promotional materials dare too much in an attempt to amaze and surprise the audience, it will then scream at the downgrade and launch into the most classic of review bombing crusades at the game's release.

In short, this is it. complex puzzle does not seem to have a simple solution, even considering that E3 runs the serious risk of never returning to the formula that contradicted it before the pandemic. It is not clear if the trend of companies abandoning the stages in favor of digital events will grow over the years, but the truth is that we were the ones who wanted a different Expo, who wanted it more concrete, more sober and devoid of those excesses that made some of his editions memorable.

We are convinced that it is too late to reverse this process, and although it is disheartening to have to admit that the magic of E3 has probably vanished forever, we can console ourselves with the fact that we have experienced those moments, of having been able to dream. If purgatory is the price of flying among the stars of the city of angels, then it will be worth it.