Almost 50% of the 3,400 responders to our poll about the Xbox Games Showcase would rate Microsoft’s show as brilliant, and I agree; it was fantastic and had some great reveals. Alternatively, Geoff Keighley’s main Summer Game Fest event was alright at best, being predominantly focused on already-announced games. I don’t know whether it’s because I didn’t click with either show this year, but I can’t help but think that Summer Game Fest lacks the E3 spectacle.I’m missing the spectacle of E3In years past, E3 was the event of the year, and I’d book the time off work so I could sit down undisturbed and see what the industry was throwing at us. Developers and publishers from all over the world would descend on LA to showcase their hottest games and hardware, and when it came to the main show, the gloves came off. Cosplayed characters, robots, cars, performances, and more would be pulled onto the stage for some extra pizzazz alongside a game or accessory’s reveal trailer. You could hear that energy flow through the crowd as those in the audience felt the excitement in person — hell, I’d let out a few whoops and hollas from my sofa when things became overly exciting. For instance, looking back at E3 2016, my neighbors may have thought I had won the lottery when Phil Spencer announced the Xbox One X with that spectacular Project Scorpio reveal trailer — I still proudly display my Project Scorpio One X to this day. E3 truly was the premiere gaming event of the year: a moment of shared enthusiasm for the games we love. Unfortunately, that energy has somewhat dulled since Summer Game Fest replaced E3 during the pandemic. What was once a thrilling gaming event is now very much a highlight reel of trailers with very little presence from the people who work so hard to make these games. While the Ubisoft Forward this year might have been disappointing for reveals (still no Splinter Cell or Beyond Good and Evil 2), I enjoy the airtime its developers get to talk about their work in depth. The same goes for Xbox Wire’s steady stream of deep dives this week, which has revealed a ton of excellent details about its upcoming games. For me, I think that lack of human presence is what’s leaving me nostalgic for times past. Much like the Scorpio reveal, it was the excitement from developers that seemed to create a memorable announcement.Now, I’d like to point out that I’d prefer companies to save the marketing budget they’d otherwise spend on traveling to E3 and instead put it towards paying their staff — the industry has had an embarrassing number of layoffs over the last year or so and developers deserve to create their art with peace of mind. However, if the recent report from Esquire is correct, it’s still costing companies a lot of money to showcase their games during Summer Game Fest’s main show. As reported shortly before Summer Game Fest 2024 kicked off, a one-minute trailer costs $250,000, a 1.5-minute trailer costs $350,000, a two-minute trailer costs $450,000, and a 2.5-minute trailer costs $550,000. Kotaku later reported that those also include a select number of social media posts for exposure — there are also reportedly a number of free slots available for “earned editorial placements.”Of course, this is a buyer’s market, and I’m sure the exposure Summer Game Fest offers each game goes some way towards mitigating the unbelievable cost of promoting it at the event, but it doesn’t incentivize publishers to provide much more than a game’s trailer. Gone are the days of having to transport physical showcase products, staff, and in some cases, cars; instead, games can get just as much exposure by just dropping a trailer. This sounds like much less hassle and must probably be preferable for publishers, but I still miss the atmosphere and the physical wow factor of times past. I can’t blame publishers or Summer Game Fest for the loss of spectacle when games are so expensive to make now, but I still mourn the loss of show-stopping set pieces and over-the-top commentary.All that to say: we’re probably not going to see those days return, at least not in the foreseeable future, so what can be done instead? Giving developers a platform to speak would be a great start. I loved the stage craziness but seeing the teams themselves talking about their games was a key part for me. If we could see their passion and excitement return to the stage more regularly, I think it would make for an exceptional show. Geoff Keighley’s other annual show, The Game Awards, is sold as an event that strives to “recognize those who improve the wellbeing of the community and elevate voices that represent the future of the medium.” In reality, it has practically become Winter Game Fest, offering developers limited time to actually speak about their games. Last year, pictures from audience members revealed that The Game Awards had promoters telling developers to “please wrap it up” after they had spent a couple of minutes thanking everyone for their award.We’ve established that the spectacle has already been drained from Summer Game Fest, and likely won’t return, so wouldn’t it be best in the future to move a number of those Game Awards reveals to the June show, freeing up more time for developers at the end of the year? For example, this year’s Summer Game Fest ran for around two hours, while last year’s Game Awards lasted around four hours. Of course, you can’t remove all of the announcements from The Game Awards, as they’re the show’s main moneymakers, and many publishers host their own summer showcases, but by being more selective with what to advertise, we could increase the amount of celebration the developers get at the end of the year — while still getting some of those awesome announcements!I’ve probably ranted about “the good ‘ol days” for long enough, so I’ll swallow my Werther’s Original and end it here. The events we’ve had so far this summer did a great job of showing off fantastic new games for us to get excited about. But after a couple of years of industry-wide layoffs and studio closures which just feels disrespectful to the people who make the games we love, it’d be great to see a renewed focus on the people behind the games too. The Game Awards has an opportunity to change things around in December. I’ll have my fingers crossed.
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