When compared to previous years, E3 2019 ended up being incredibly lacking; with Sony having ducked out of the show and the number of exciting announcements severely limited, the show over the last week was essentially proof positive that this current generation of systems is slowly winding down and the amount of games on offer is diminishing. This was seen with a lack of gameplay demonstrations and a higher concentration of pre-rendered trailers, something that doesn’t really impress the gaming community at large.
Most companies this year remained the same when it came to both press conference approach and presentation and while we did see some long-awaited titles get shown off, there was also a lot of fluff and insignificant demonstrations padding out the runtime. The use of mobile games and the occasional company-sponsored video were especially questionable. If there was a winner of E3 this year, I’d pick Nintendo’s Direct feed event for its strong reveals and extensive third-party support that focused entirely on the Nintendo Switch as a console, something companies like Microsoft really need to take notes on. As this generation wraps up, it’s honestly difficult to tell which direction the industry will take; with many companies having fallen into greedy tactics, we’ll have to watch corporate decisions much more closely.
As a result, I’m not going to spend a paragraph or two talking about the trends as there were so few of them to talk about this year. Be that as it may, let’s get to my personal picks and dubious honours…
· Most improved of the big companies: No one (Few big steps were made across the board)
· Least progressive of the big companies: Microsoft
· Most disappointing: Project Scarlett announcement
· Biggest surprise: Keanu Reeves showing up in Cyberpunk 2077 at Microsoft’s conference (Even if it had little to do with the Xbox platform)
· Most awkward moment: Bethesda’s employee video on what games mean to them
· Strongest return: No More Heroes 3
· Missing in action: Metroid Prime 4 and Rocksteady Studios (Again!) alongside Beyond Good and Evil 2 and several others
Game of the Show: Cyberpunk 2077
Honourable Mentions: Doom Eternal, Final Fantasy VII Remake and Watch Dogs: Legion
So there you have it, easily the weakest E3 of the eighth console generation; at the very least next year’s show is sure to have more, especially with regards to the next set of consoles. Guess I’ll see you then…
To read my rundown of the press conferences, click here.
(All images used for the purposes of review and criticism under fair use)