As the marketing machine behind Id Software begins to rollout and the world starts taking a proper look at Doom Eternal, I can't stop myself from pensively reflecting on how the world of gaming has grown. I've watched a few videos of likeable YouTubers trying their hand at the game and in-depth walkthrough's of certain aspects of the title, and I keep remember the fact that only a few years ago this sort of coverage would be withheld exclusively for the middle months of the year, or more specifically, during and around E3.
Id is by no means the first company to change up their marketing timeline either, recently IGN published the entire intro movie for the 'Final Fantasy 7 Remake' (Which I have not watched and will not. It's only another 2 months, afterall. I can be strong... I can...) and at the end of this month Nintendo will be hosting a celebration of the Pokemon franchise wherein they will be unveiling 'Pokemon Sword and Shield's first Mythical Pokemon. (Finger's crossed that it doesn't require everyone to fly to freakin' Hokkaido in order to redeem it.) The trend I'm trying to highlight here is of game companies finally acknowledging this little tool they have at their disposal called 'The Internet' and making use of it, rather than shaping their whole development/marketing/release schedule around some hyper-expensive trade show in LA.
The question that we are left with, once seeing these mass shifts, is whether or not E3 is still necessary in today's age. I think that this conversation was really sparked, at least for me, last year when it was announced that Sony wouldn't be attending E3 for that year. (Something which they intend to keep up for this year) It was such a huge shock for one of the three titans of the gaming industry to just up and not attend, and folk were left to speculate on why that might be the case. It seemed that things were just starting to reach the point where other studios were growing enough to the stage that they could host their own conferences alongside the platform owners; With Bethesda, EA and Ubisoft holding their own shows, but now that was beginning to unravel and no one quite knew why. In my opinion, the key reasons why Sony have moved away from E3 are two fold, lethargy and money.
That latter point is rather self explanatory, E3 is a pricey event to attend for the uninvited but it is prohibitively expensive for the studios to set up in. Every single spot on the stage floor is competitively priced to all hell and back, as the organisers figure this is justified as their platform is the single biggest marketing stage in the world. And in the past that was true. From the 2000's to the middle 2010's there really wasn't another option to ensure that everyone would know about a game other than attending the highly televised trade show, and the ESA (Entertainment Software Association) knew that they could leverage that exclusivity for as much as they want. This particular fact has been bemoaned by smaller companies such as 'the indie publisher' Devolver Digital who seemed to have crafted a brand around staging E3 shows that directly riff and mock the official E3 shows. Last year they even had a physical presence at E3, or rather outside it in the parking lot, as they explained that the cost of buying a stage would top out that year's advertising budget.
That other point is more of an idea that I've developed from watching these shows over the years, but I still feel that it's had a part to play in today's marketing landscape. Due to the dominance of E3 and it's coverage of so many high profile games, every publisher felt inclined to make their appearance on the show floor or risk the industry forgetting about them. This led to situations where crucial development periods were halted in order to create an E3 demo, even when the demo in question wasn't even representative of the final product (Ubisoft) or times when reveals were made before a game was ready to hit the marketing cycle, resulting in products being teased years before their release. (Final Fantasy XV, Kingdom Hearts 3, The Last Guardian) In recent years we've had times when conferences have been hosted for the sole purpose of 'keeping up appearances' such as with Bethesda's latest shows. It was a huge hamster wheel that I'm sure Sony have been eager to get off for a while, and now they have.
Of course, Sony going their own way isn't as insane of a prospect as it might have been ten years ago, because E3's dominance over gaming news has waned significantly in recent years. Nintendo broke free of the ESA's timescale when they started doing their very own 'Nintendo Direct' live shows whenever the heck they felt like it and Sony have recently followed suit with their 'State of play'. The internet allows for these companies to speak directly to their fans without having to shell out millions on a show floor and due to the vast array of game news sources out there, Sony don't even have to worry if only a couple million people catch the show, because the pertinent information will inevitably spread like wildfire.
Sony has essentially outgrown E3 and have consequently dropped the event like a bad stink, and it makes absolute sense when you think about it. The E3 organisers know this too, just as they know that they stand to lose out on big money if any of the other huge companies drop out as well. Unfortunately, they seem to have no idea how to promote confidence in their brand and are actually managing the absolute opposite. Not long after 2019's E3 there was a huge doxxing scandal where it was revealed that a lack of security on the ESA's part had resulted in the personal details of hundreds of reporters getting leaked; and just last week there was another tech screw-up as this years' E3 official website was made live and leaked to the public early. (Luckily nothing was really spoilt from that one, it was just embarrassing.) They've even managed to actively repulse studios and talent from the show with their plans to make this years' show 'more relevant', but I'll get more into that in another blog.
All I want to answer today is the question; 'Is E3 relevant?', and I think that answer is an obvious: No. The entire idea of 'trade shows' seems to have become increasingly redundant in a world that has become ever more digital and E3 lacks the weight it once held. No one really enjoys the idea of saving all their big game announcements for one huge event wherein there is a substantial chance of being overshadowed, so moving to more direct marketing strategy (if you'll excuse the pun) just seems to be the way of the day. This doesn't mean that E3 is unsalvageable, far from it, but there is a significant amount of restructuring and reformatting required in order to make this brand 'stick' again and given the leaks we've heard about for this year's show, I don't think the current management have the brains to pull that reboot off. (But I'd love to be proven wrong)
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