The reason E3 will suck this year…

..for announcements.

This is just my guess but I think that publishers are trying to shorten the hype time between announcements and releases – optimising hype, stopping over-hype and loss of hype as well as disappointment when a game is cancelled or changed. Many developers have said that they will announce games closer to their release and this is the reason why this E3 will/is sucking for announcements.

Basically we’re in the stop-gap year where we’ve already had games that have been announced for 2-4 years and will be released this year. Rather than ruin their future plans the publishers will instead save their announcements until the relevant time – i.e. next year or later on this year.

I rather like Microsoft model... focus on this year, and with a little look to the future. The reason being, Sony Press Conference! Yes, the games they showed were great and I'm most likely to buy half of them. At same time, I feel like I've seen all of this games over the years at GDC, E3, TGS and at certain point it becomes a downer. At least with Microsoft, what ever they showed is 80% guarantee to be released this year... and I can get excited to play this and that in October, November, etc...

Nei, I couldn't agree more if I tried. And I'm really, really trying.

I would wholeheartedly welcome a shortened hype cycle for games.

I want a mandatory maximum 2 month hype to release cycle for all games. People, start calling your congressmen!

Serengeti wrote:

I want a mandatory maximum 2 month hype to release cycle for all games. People, start calling your congressmen!

I think 6 months is a good time frame. Two months is too short to actually get the game idea/name out to the general populace.

I love the idea of limiting pre-release announcement time. One of the many reasons E3 has sucked this year is that there haven't been any up-and-coming surprises. Off the top of my head, I can't think of a single unexpected game unveiled by the big 3 this year that will be released by years' end. Not even Animal Crossing for the Wii was a surprise.

The Fly wrote:

I love the idea of limiting pre-release announcement time. One of the many reasons E3 has sucked this year is that there haven't been any up-and-coming surprises. Off the top of my head, I can't think of a single unexpected game unveiled by the big 3 this year that will be released by years' end. Not even Animal Crossing for the Wii was a surprise.

That's what i said

If they're cutting back on announcements so they can announce stuff that'll be out in a few months, I'm all about that. Don't know if that's really an option for Sony right now, though... it doesn't seem like they've got a whole lot to show yet on ANY timeline.

Duoae wrote:

..for announcements.

This is just my guess but I think that publishers are trying to shorten the hype time between announcements and releases – optimising hype, stopping over-hype and loss of hype as well as disappointment when a game is cancelled or changed. Many developers have said that they will announce games closer to their release and this is the reason why this E3 will/is sucking for announcements.

They're likely doing this out of necessity. Announcing games at E3 has become something of a running joke. When you see the same games year after year at E3 you start to wonder where the hell they are.