E3 Convention starts to decline while Nintendo comes out on top!

E3, The Electronic Entertainment Expo has come under sever criticism as overpriced tickets, lack luster content, and Industry Lead companies start holding their own events and conventions for releases…

The year is 2019, E3 came and went, EA held their own event practically “Down the Street” on Saturday while Blizzard is already sold out for their own convention this year. Bethesda, Bandi/Namco, Lucasarts-EA, Nintendo and a few of the other huge AAA companies got to showcase their upcoming projects. However, this year we’ve seen a decline in popular opinion across social media and the general support provided.

Games announced like “Cyberpunk 2077” from CD Projekt Red with the sudden resurgence of the titular “Secret Man-Crush” Keanu Reeves whom not only announced said game but seems to be a key character in the game that got the crowd hyped. Another presenter, Ikumi Nakamura, wooed the fans and internet alike with her playful display and otherwise cute approach for “Ghostwire” from Bethesda.

While our hopes and dreams were lifted with these presenters and their products, Lucasarts-EA gave us a look at their attempt to “Cash in” on the popularity of “Dark Souls”/”Bloodborne”/”Sekiro” with “Star Wars: Fallen Order”. If you’re an Old School fan of Dark Forces, like I am, and they make a game 20 years after the fact where you can’t dismember enemies but you can impale them with your “Laser Sword” you’ve got to wonder just what exactly they were thinking when games like “Jedi Outcast” had better saber physics and realism. Not to mention the in game cinematic look like something from the Playstation 3 Era with less polish than the in-game cut-scene content from SW:TOR and a major step back for a franchise that already had so much. Mimicry is the greatest flattery for some but this is not a FromSoft game.

The best, however, was saved for last. Nintendo quietly sat in wait like a puma with it’s DLC release for Smash Brothers, Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Luigi’s Mansion 3, Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order, Pokemon Sun/Moon, a Link’s Awakening Remake, Cadence of Hyrule: Crypt of the NecroDancer, Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch, Daemon X Machina, and some DLC for Xenoblade Chronicles 2. All of this was great news but Nintendo usually lets us all know what’s coming out with “Nintendo Direct” so E3 simply served them as a platform for launching such news.

However, it would look like the Corperately Owned IGN (by Gamestop) would be covering some strange content from our friends over at Ubisoft. What are you guys doing? Seriously, what exactly is going on? In addition Ubisoft and google Google “Stradia” is going to cost you every month like an MMO Subscribtion with a heavy emphasis on using as MUCH bandwidth they can however, in the USA, over in the pond Australia and the UK, and much of the rest of the first world data caps and bandwidth limits are more and more of an actual issue and “Playing lots of video games” is NOT going to “Make the ISPs increase your cap when they can just shut off your network and demand more money”. Someone didn’t think this all out (or they didn’t consider that you can’t strong-arm businesses that monopolize an actual telecommunication resource controls). I mean, at least they have a dog, right?

That all being said I’ve actually spoken to a few industry folks in California. They’re finding that it’s actually less money to spend starting their own venue and “Event” than it is to pay $3-8k for a table at E3 when other venues are willing to give you the whole floor and you can offer table space for vendors and smaller companies and require paid registration to get in. While E3 has been an industry staple since 1995 AAA companies are “Doing their own thing” as stated by one of the staff this year on the Show Floor (we’re not going to tell everyone your name but you know who you are). As mentioned earlier Companies like Blizzard-Activision, EA, Id, and various have begun their own “Events” and “Conventions”. Id of Doom and Quake fame have had QUAKECON for years (and this year QC will be “DOOMCON”) racking in tens of thousands in preregistration and attending fees while entertaining and providing an outlet for thousands of fraggers, gamers, fans, designs go to see the sights and while I’ve only attended in streaming form I can say watching John Carmack lecture on projects and game design.

We have our fingers on the pulse and ear on the ground. Stirring from many West-Coast based companies has begun. Smaller “Retro Gaming” conventions have been turning a profit and pulling enough to justify venues like the “Pasadena Convention Center” and ballrooms at Hotels and Resorts. It’s only a matter of time before E3 loses it’s teeth and we have multiple conventions populated by key publishers populated with dozens of vendors and fan-works that brings back a sense of community rather than this strange force-fed narrative and “Razzle Dazzle” for sub par AAA products.

-R. Rankin