If you have been watching the news closely, you would have known by now that there are hardly any surprise announcements to be made during E3 2014.
Long gone are the days where new games and developer specific titles were shown on the show floor. Things have changed and with the internet feeding on rumors, everything that was supposed to be revealed during the show ends up getting released days or weeks earlier. Sometimes, even companies decide to make their announcements a month earlier rather than wait for the event to take place. After all this, the big question is, do we need an electronics entertainment expo? Does the conference still hold the magic it used to possess in the past?
The Big Reveals
The Xbox One priced at $499 was one of the biggest complaints that gamers had. Most of them opined that it is inferior in terms of hardware and costs $100 more than PS4 which makes it a worthless purchase. Microsoft decided to back track one more time and officially announced that they are releasing a Kinect-less Xbox One for $399. Without a doubt, this announcement demands a space on stage during the E3 2014 MS conference but the company chose to reveal it rather earlier. Does it mean that they have something more amazing to show during their 90-minute show? Will they be able to make heads turn with some impressive titles? It can be confirmed only when they take up the dais on June 9th which is not far away but if they decide to reveal good news a week or month earlier, what’s the point of spending so much to host an event?
No Place For Innovation
In the recent past, the gaming industry has undergone drastic changes and the biggest of them all is that they are no longer the hub of innovation they used to be. It is now all about marketing and making more business. The motto is being uniformly followed by Microsoft, Sony, Ubisoft and EA which has been consistently dominating the creative side for years now. With so little innovation going on, it is not surprising to see the gaming industry plummeting down and the same titles being churned out with multiple sequels. The trend has been further worsened by the new intellectual properties such as Titanfall and Watch Dogs. These two games were some of the most hyped in recent history but they hardly lived up to the hype generated. It did help the companies get pre-orders but they received mediocre or bad reviews from critics. Besides, the games don’t seem to have the longevity that titles like Call of Duty, Assassin’s Creed or Battlefield had.
A gaming event like E3 2014 is supposed to provide a platform for indie developers to come out and show off their creations. But, they are completely crushed under these AAA titles because they are owned by big time developers while indies can’t spend much on marketing themselves to the crowd. It is time for E3 to either change its strategy so that its purpose is met.
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