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Don't expect big reveals at Summer Games Fest, says Geoff Keighley

To be honest I don‘t expect anything big anymore in this generation. It‘s been the worst generation so far, Triple A games are generic as fuck, I don‘t like remakes and nobody’s gonna reinvent the wheel. Indies are helping a lot but even they can‘t rescue this generation from drowning in remakes and boring content.
 

Miyazaki’s Slave

Gold Member
Not at all - the games business is changing as it always has, but it's bigger than ever. Going through a correction is not the same thing as the structural collapse movies are experiencing - in part because of games.
That is what I thought two years ago. Now though I am not so sure. All my friends who have kids 15 and under only own ipads and iphones. None of them have consoles, I know that is a small sample size, but if they are all playing Roblox on their ipads and not transition to other "traditional" games as they get older, that feels like user erosion to me.

Sony and Microsoft are also chasing those "tent pole" releases...or they are trying and currently failing at least. When 6 games produce 51% of your platforms revenue and the other 49% is made up of everything else it starts to stink of "Marvel movie syndrome".

I hope I am wrong!
 
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Barakov

Member
geoff-keighly-summer-games-fest-2024-1.jpg



During the session, Keighley confirmed that a lot of games wouldn't be on show. Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater will not by shown, for example. Kingdom Hearts 4 is also off the table, as is The Wolf Among Us 2. Neither should we expect anything about upcoming BioShock-like shooter Judas, nor anything on future Five Nights At Freddy's games.

Keighley contrasted the Summer Game Fest with his other big show, The Game Awards, which is normally the place for reveals, he says.




Source
If he's saying it, you know it's bad.
 

GHound

Member
So one of the things you'll see with the show this week is we really tried to program some unexpected things from smaller teams, independent studios into the show as well alongside some sort of big y'know blockbuster games and franchises that you will see in the show as well. I think that's what's cool about our industry right now is that it's a great time where small games can really get significant success that we've seen and then also y'know there are big games that will be coming out and everyone's excited about seeing those.

I think it's going to be generally a little bit quieter this summer in terms of like crazy announcements and shocking surprises and things like that and that's one of the things that I always see online, all the crazy speculation. Just like last week with the PlayStation State of Play when people had crazy expectations and y'know I walked away really excited about the Astro Bot game which I cannot wait to learn more about I haven't had the chance to play it or see it but that trailer was incredible. But I think people have lots of expectations and I see all this stuff even around summer game fest and I think it's going to be a good, solid show but we don't have a new GTA6 trailer or something that we're going to drop for you and I know sometimes when I see the feedback online people have lots of crazy things that they get excited about and hopefully we deliver on some of those things but I'm sure many things we won't and it's always just good I think to go into these events excited about what's gonna happen and hopefully show some games that you will discover for the first time
Jim Carrey Chance GIF
 

Northeastmonk

Gold Member
I’m kinda glad it’s not an anticipation extravaganza. I’m happy with a lot of already announced games. I’m curious to see what he will show off. Half the time there’s complaints over the big shots and the indie developers get the spotlight. It’s about the same thing. Wait till the AAA games spotlight shines by its gameplay and not its trailer.
 
E3 didn't died because of streaming, it's because gaming content eat itself

And yes, it's games as a service
E3 died primarily because massive publishers realized they can save millions of dollars by having events of their own. Not to mention, Sony and Nintendo are not announcing games years in advance because they don't have to
 
From "you will own nothing and be happy!" to "we have nothing big to show but please watch anyways" lol

it has to be pretty bad if he's trying to manage expectations, because the goto play is to always overhype things even knowing it'll be lackluster.
 

Men_in_Boxes

Snake Oil Salesman
From "you will own nothing and be happy!" to "we have nothing big to show but please watch anyways" lol

it has to be pretty bad if he's trying to manage expectations, because the goto play is to always overhype things even knowing it'll be lackluster.

I'm pumped to see updates on Concord and Arc Raiders. Reveals are not the end all be all.
 

mdkirby

Gold Member
Still wake the deep releases in two weeks
Yeah and I do want that. Still tho, it’s not quite what I’ve been looking for, given its horror theming and scare factor. I’ll still enjoy it I’m sure. Latest I polished off was killer frequency, which whilst technically horror, ie a serial killer was running around town, it was super chill and pretty light hearted, I guess that’s the vibe I’m looking for.
 
To be honest I don‘t expect anything big anymore in this generation. It‘s been the worst generation so far, Triple A games are generic as fuck, I don‘t like remakes and nobody’s gonna reinvent the wheel. Indies are helping a lot but even they can‘t rescue this generation from drowning in remakes and boring content.
This far in and how many games actually feels next gen with features that make you feel like the medium is moving forward? That doesn't feel like last gen leftovers? That 2D->3D Mario->Shenmue->MGS2->Uncharted 2->Witcher 3 leap? Keep in mind all those came out fairly early in their respective gens. The Matrix demo? Baldur's Gate 3? Cyberpunk and Starfield were in over their heads. Everyone else is coasting or still years out.

The only big time wheel reinventing thing on the horizon looks like Crimson Desert, who knows how nerfed and broken that's going to be, if it releases at all. GTA IV will have a groundbreaking open world and same old limited interaction and jank gameplay.

I don't understand why an industry would want to actively try to avoid hype. "Don't get too excited" is the message from this dude every single time.
Because unbelievable expectations lead to disappointment and anger.
 

Toots

Gold Member
So we hate him when he "overhypes" and also hate him when he's being candid and managing expectations...


Make It Work Season 2 GIF by CW Kung Fu
You don't seem to understand.
We hate because he's the dorito pope, because of his sellout state of mind. Of course his eminently punchable face doesn't help his case.
 

Sybrix

Member
Canceling E3 was the worst decision ever.

These fragmented game presentations are so bad, Xbox, Playstation, Nintendo, Bethesday, Ubi etc..... they all suck compared to the live E3 presentations.

I really hope something resemebling E3 comes back in the future.
 
Don’t fall for it, guys. It’s his new strategy: downhyping the event and then overdelivering.

So the show is going to be amazing and filled with huge announcements to the brim!
 

ProtoByte

Weeb Underling
Canceling E3 was the worst decision ever.

These fragmented game presentations are so bad, Xbox, Playstation, Nintendo, Bethesday, Ubi etc..... they all suck compared to the live E3 presentations.

I really hope something resemebling E3 comes back in the future.
Don't forget why E3 went away. Crunch, cost and politics. Publishers aren't going to submit themselves wholesale to third party trade shows, and devs are not going to take having serious showcase deadlines every year in the summer sitting down.
 

CamHostage

Member
I'm just confused by the math that some people are trying to use to say that this is bad but that E3 would have been good if it were still alive today. They didn't make games so that there was a show; they had a show because they had made games. With production taking so long and studio output being so diminished, the games don't exist to show.

There’s some truth in it, but this “forced“ them to show what they had under their sleeves.

In the times when E3 had power and the marketing timeline of big Christmas titles being ready to reveal come summertime made sense, it sometimes did force publishers to make some kind of show happen. However, often what they showed wasn't actually "up their sleeves", instead they made shit up in an emergency display of sales potential. Desperately showing anything, sometimes just logos and maybe voiceover for productions shortly after a greenlight, other times even CG target renders and concept videos that the developers begged not to be shown because they've got 0% of the game done, that ended up with a ton of stuff that never actually came close to making it to market. That E3 2005 PS3 announcement event still haunts Sony with its bogus Killzone 2 and Motorstorm 'trailers'.

Everything that made E3 a prep for the upcoming sales seasons is pretty different now, as is the need to woo retailers to buying into a product line and press coming into the booth to schedule the next 6 months of coverage. E3 was already a pretend show for many years before (it almost died in the curtailed airplane hangar 2007 show,) and publishers only put in the effort to make up additional E3 Vaporware like Agent and Bioshock Vita because these announcements could help book hardware allotments in stores. Now, that tactic isn't as powerful, as even the "real" games like Everwild and Wolverine and Perfect Dark and Fable take so long to release that it doesn't make a lot of sense to make up even more BS or announce more games even further out when fatigue has set in waiting for the games we were promised when the console was announced.

... those last ones were not the best E3s ever but they were still infinitely better than what we got after.

By default that the game industry was in better shape then, so the events were more healthy in titles, but if you look at what was in E3 2017 or 2016 and compare them to for example the 2020 Sony and Xbox showcases (which also had some of that "forced reveal" stuff you talked about earlier,) it's not that different when the games are there. And Sony was already moving towards showing fewer titles, with its then-bizarre E3 2018 showcase of 3 games being more a portent of A) the choice to highlight specific in long-form showings of titles ready for the hype cycle rather than sizzle reels of lots of titles in all different states of development being a smarter tactic and also B) the extended timelines of game production having an impact in how many titles they had in the works as it was.

The Big 3 publisher showcases were also increasingly padded with 3rd Party announcements, which left the other events of the show empty (and same for the actual E3 itself... E3 tended to be over the Tuesday before the floor even opened because all the announcements came and everything exciting announced wasn't actually ready on the floor to play or were in developer-controlled demos which were the same segments as the announcement.) E3 was a more compressed experience, which was nicer in some ways, (some people like having announcements happen all year round, others prefer that isolated once-a-year "big party bash" of E3, plus the lesser Gamescom + TGS events.) However, I think some people are forgettiing how mediocre the recent E3s were (in terms of razzle-dazzle and groundbreaking announcements to look forward to) than in the golden times, and the reasons for it going downhill are the same as the reasons why these summer showcase events aren't as powerful either.
 

cormack12

Gold Member
Canceling E3 was the worst decision ever.

These fragmented game presentations are so bad, Xbox, Playstation, Nintendo, Bethesday, Ubi etc..... they all suck compared to the live E3 presentations.

I really hope something resemebling E3 comes back in the future.
You could start He/She3

That would take off.
 
I'm just confused by the math that some people are trying to use to say that this is bad but that E3 would have been good if it were still alive today. They didn't make games so that there was a show; they had a show because they had made games. With production taking so long and studio output being so diminished, the games don't exist to show.



In the times when E3 had power and the marketing timeline of big Christmas titles being ready to reveal come summertime made sense, it sometimes did force publishers to make some kind of show happen. However, often what they showed wasn't actually "up their sleeves", instead they made shit up in an emergency display of sales potential. Desperately showing anything, sometimes just logos and maybe voiceover for productions shortly after a greenlight, other times even CG target renders and concept videos that the developers begged not to be shown because they've got 0% of the game done, that ended up with a ton of stuff that never actually came close to making it to market. That E3 2005 PS3 announcement event still haunts Sony with its bogus Killzone 2 and Motorstorm 'trailers'.

Everything that made E3 a prep for the upcoming sales seasons is pretty different now, as is the need to woo retailers to buying into a product line and press coming into the booth to schedule the next 6 months of coverage. E3 was already a pretend show for many years before (it almost died in the curtailed airplane hangar 2007 show,) and publishers only put in the effort to make up additional E3 Vaporware like Agent and Bioshock Vita because these announcements could help book hardware allotments in stores. Now, that tactic isn't as powerful, as even the "real" games like Everwild and Wolverine and Perfect Dark and Fable take so long to release that it doesn't make a lot of sense to make up even more BS or announce more games even further out when fatigue has set in waiting for the games we were promised when the console was announced.



By default that the game industry was in better shape then, so the events were more healthy in titles, but if you look at what was in E3 2017 or 2016 and compare them to for example the 2020 Sony and Xbox showcases (which also had some of that "forced reveal" stuff you talked about earlier,) it's not that different when the games are there. And Sony was already moving towards showing fewer titles, with its then-bizarre E3 2018 showcase of 3 games being more a portent of A) the choice to highlight specific in long-form showings of titles ready for the hype cycle rather than sizzle reels of lots of titles in all different states of development being a smarter tactic and also B) the extended timelines of game production having an impact in how many titles they had in the works as it was.

The Big 3 publisher showcases were also increasingly padded with 3rd Party announcements, which left the other events of the show empty (and same for the actual E3 itself... E3 tended to be over the Tuesday before the floor even opened because all the announcements came and everything exciting announced wasn't actually ready on the floor to play or were in developer-controlled demos which were the same segments as the announcement.) E3 was a more compressed experience, which was nicer in some ways, (some people like having announcements happen all year round, others prefer that isolated once-a-year "big party bash" of E3, plus the lesser Gamescom + TGS events.) However, I think some people are forgettiing how mediocre the recent E3s were (in terms of razzle-dazzle and groundbreaking announcements to look forward to) than in the golden times, and the reasons for it going downhill are the same as the reasons why these summer showcase events aren't as powerful either.
This is a nice post, honestly, with many truths in it that I agree with. But still, for me, even the worst E3 was infinitely better than any of these shitshows we got since the last E3.
 
I appreciate that he is at least attempting to manage expectations. Even tho I think for various reasons, many of which are not his fault, SGF is just nowhere near as good as E3 was, and it's no replacement at all in most respects.

If Nintendo were to participate it would help quite a bit, but I just don't see that happening the way things are nowadays. Nintendo doesn't even announce anything at the TGAs anymore.
 
Canceling E3 was the worst decision ever.

These fragmented game presentations are so bad, Xbox, Playstation, Nintendo, Bethesday, Ubi etc..... they all suck compared to the live E3 presentations.

I really hope something resemebling E3 comes back in the future.
COVID killed it. But it would have eventually died, anyway. Once Sony pulled out in 2019 the oxygen was sucked out of the room and the writing was on the wall. COVID just accelerated it. Without all three platform holders doing a giant booth and a Direct/ press conference, it's just pointless. Everyone needs to be there or it's not worthwhile and it doesn't work.
 
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Given how far we are into this gen I thought we might at least have one big announcement

I miss E3

I would even take days off just to watch it all

Yes I know…

c3d2800f-300c-4e6c-8285-a21eb29ebe13_text.gif

E3 was like a holiday for gaming nerds. :messenger_grinning_smiling:

The mistake of the summer game fest was spreading things out. Everything being crammed together made it easier to take in (for those just following the news from home). Though there is always the possibility that he is trying to under promise and over deliver.
 
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Wulfer

Member
Canceling E3 was the worst decision ever.

These fragmented game presentations are so bad, Xbox, Playstation, Nintendo, Bethesday, Ubi etc..... they all suck compared to the live E3 presentations.

I really hope something resemebling E3 comes back in the future.
Surprisingly, the only one that comes close to what E3 was in show and style is Microsoft! Microsoft takes the crown because they take the time to do a high quality show because they have so many IP's. Go figure????
 

Oppoi

Member
Surprisingly, the only one that comes close to what E3 was in show and style is Microsoft! Microsoft takes the crown because they take the time to do a high quality show because they have so many IP's. Go figure????
Buy out the industry then brag about it. Yeah that's Microsoft alright.
 
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