Editorial: Stop Treating Us Like Idiots, Microsoft and EA

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

Sony, EA, MS, and Ubi's pressers were ALL average at best. They did nothing special at best or were complete snores at worse. It seems like they have no real idea what they're doing with E3 pressers. Heck, I'm not even sure if they know WHY they go to E3 anymore other than it being a habit.

 

[LazyAza]

I thought MS n Sony did pretty good this year, lots of cool stuff I'm interested in. Heck I even came away from MS' thinking "maybe I should get a One eventually" which is an enormous difference to my previous thoughts of "why would I buy that useless piece of crap?" haha.

As for all the games that were teased and not shown, if a dev doesn't feel they are ready to show their game off then they shouldn't. The vast vast VAST majority of people don't understand how games are made and how they don't start really coming together and looking and being awesome until very late in to development.

You can't show off a game if you don't have convincing footage indicative of the final product. Games are as complex and expensive as they've ever been and so the process of getting them ready to show to the public takes longer than ever.

This article was poor at best, seems like it was written by someone deliberately being angry and cranky for no real reason. Sure lots of dumb stuff has happened this year already but nothing worth getting this mad about, aside from maybe a lack of Last Guardian in any form.

 

[Rellik San]

Sony and Microsofts events felt rife with:

"Coming to consoles first on..." and "The console exclusive debut..." and "first only on..." all of which seemed to me to be code for: "Please guys, please don't pay attention to the devs who say a PC release is happening... guys... guys... honest... it'll be better on our machines... in 720p... and 30fps... guys..."

Also as a European: FUCK SONY!
When talking about their new service platforms, new content for PS+ and many other things I couldn't help but notice the constant use of: "North American users..." "Users in North America..." and not to mention the ridiculous mark up on their products for the EU, if I'm paying equivalent to $50 - $150 more for Hardware, Sony better be giving me the same, if not BETTER service then NA.

EA felt very meh, I don't want a numbered Mass Effect, I want smaller stories in that universe that build on that universe, like how about an open world style C-Sec game, I mean the Citadel is meant to be the size of 5 cities. Hardline, I got beta, it's ok, just ok... but nothing they had really set me on fire.

Ubisofts conference felt awkward and unnecessarily forced, although I am looking forward to a new Rainbow Six game, lets be honest what we all want is Ubi to announce the death of Uplay. If Ubi did that, they'd win E3.

And then Nintendo, who as said in the article did their own thing and it was glorious, the Robot Chicken segment, new IP announced, a new Xenoblade, I think people forget how often Nintendo actually put out new IP or Franchises and what we really want from them is a new Character.

For my money, Nintendo stole it, if only because of Sony's conference basically telling me as an EU gamer that I'm not worth their time.

___________

As for the article, it's stated at the top of the page when you read it, it's an editorial, it's just this guys opinion, not a news piece, not the Escapists official stance but just simply an editorial.

 

[Aggieknight]

No offence intended and I am only trying to be objectively critical but why is this news? Its obviously an opinion piece that contains no news and is more suited to being posted as a feature or article rather than news.

Dear sir,

May I direct you to the word "Editorial" in the title.

When you see that, it refers to an opinion piece that is generally loosely related to current events.

Like in this case.

Yours truly,
Me.

ps - As someone who has watched E3 news, i tend to agree with the editorial. M$ gave no real reason to look at their console and EA generally displayed crap.

 

[J Tyran]

No offence intended and I am only trying to be objectively critical but why is this news? Its obviously an opinion piece that contains no news and is more suited to being posted as a feature or article rather than news.

Dear sir,

May I direct you to the word "Editorial" in the title.

When you see that, it refers to an opinion piece that is generally loosely related to current events.

Like in this case.

Yours truly,
Me.

ps - As someone who has watched E3 news, i tend to agree with the editorial. M$ gave no real reason to look at their console and EA generally displayed crap.

Ah well thats okay then, you where not misrepresenting what some people would consider a personal... rant(?) as a news piece after all.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

Treating their customers like morons is Microsoft's and EA's lifeblood though. They've been living off of that for years. You can't take that away from them. Really, you can't. They won't let you.

 

[UncleO]

so his argument is basically what, Microsoft and EA we knew what to expect from leaks so you were boring, Sony we didn't know what to expect so we were so SURPRISED and happy?

The actual content of his article points out his bias, he mentions a bunch of smaller games for Sony, but nothing that Microsoft announced that was similar (phantom dust remake comparable to Grim Fandago remake, both niche titles when released that many missed out on). Is LBP really a surprise or a big deal? Everyone knew it was coming like they knew Forza Horizon 2 was coming, it is a hugely popular series of course it was coming.

An exclusive character in diablo is a huge deal? The game will sell like shit on consoles this makes no sense to me.

Also praises Ubisoft for assassin creed footage, sounds excited about coop, but that was shown at Microsofts event...so...

 

[Redhawkmillenium]

Hey, as a big Mass Effect fan and Star Wars fan I really appreciated the look behind the scenes of those upcoming games.

 

[kevinjohnson25]

I actually liked Microsoft's conference a lot. I thought Phil Spencer's opening was very classy and made it immediately apparent that the Xbox division was going to be different under his leadership. He didn't talk about consoles sold/shipped, number of people on Xbox Live, or any of that other stuff; he thanked the fans and got right to showing games. Was it spectacular? No. But it did the job well enough to wash the taste of last year's conference away. To use the baseball analogy, they didn't get hit by the pitch, they used a contact swing to put the ball in play and got on base. It's a safe strategy that gives them something to build on. They've got some great titles coming up (Sunset Overdrive is a system seller for me and the new Dead Rising 3 DLC looks like a ton of fun) and I think they did a good job showcasing them.

EA's conference was terrible. The Dragon Age gameplay demo was remarkable in that it was the first time I'd seen a gameplay demo that left me confused about the gameplay. Was I watching one player or several? All the cuts with no context just made it a mess. Everything else was either a bunch of hand-waving or irrelevant which really bothered me because I'm somewhat excited for some of these games. Or at least I wanted to be. The UFC demo should have been easy: get 2 people to play a round. Instead we get a choreographed sequence with Bruce Lee in it which just guarantees that Bruce Lee will win. Way to show off the dynamic nature of the game, EA! The Sims 4 demo ends with a Sim laughing himself to death at a party. I'll leave it at that. I honestly think EA would have been better of just saying, "Come by our booth and play some games!" in a press release.

The Sony conference was definitely they best. They had some what you expected and some nice surprises. They got into the corporate and media player stuff a little but had more than enough content to make up for it. We got to see games get played, trailers that actually got you excited, and some big time announcements (LBP3, Grim Fandango, Far Cry 4 letting you invite people that don't own the game? Epic!). It was a great way to end the day.

I missed the Ubisoft and Nintendo conferences so opinions there.

 

[Brian Tams]

Honestly, Sony's presser wasn't all that great either. The only company that kept me glued to the screen wondering what was coming next was Nintendo, and they didn't even host a press conference. In fact, I'm beginning to wonder if maybe Nintendo is on to something by, instead of catering to E3, they instead cater directly to the fans.

Which makes me wonder if E3 is merely an expensive formality at this point.

 

[Arawn]

Overall I was content to see all the games coming soon, and the games in progress. Who had the best show? Who cares? As many people has stated and restated; it's all about the games. The E3 is just a venue in which for them to parade their wares for all to see. Each of them try to put their best foot forward and display their products in a way to appeal to all. It's fun to see everything showcased like that. If you're too busy trying to figure out who win, you've lost. With the story the writer was disappointed to say the least in what was shown. Everyone expects something different so there's going to be some that feel the same way. I won't like that I want more, but that's the nature of the beast. Some nice betas, alphas, and promos being offered.

 

[mrdude2010]

I'm calling bullshit on his praise of Sony. Trailers mean nothing. The only thing that matters is gameplay. Sony might as well have just got up onto the podium and farted for all the substance they showed us. Are we so quick to forget how nice the trailer for Dead Island was compared to the actual game?

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

Nintendo, i like your style! It reflects oneself, fuck the false norm and do what you feel passionate about.
Escapist community, your style needs to pull itself out of its arseholes. Most columns are opinion based, no need to press elitist views here. Fuck, everything is an opinion. Cant people read between the lines anymore?

 

[Kyogissun]

This is easily one of the worst things have seen on this website and it being promoted in the NEWS tab instead of the FEATURES tab is absolutely disgusting.

I'll take the coverage of Mass Effect and Mirror's Edge that they did this year over hearing nothing. I'm FINE with piecemeal information. A BETTER criticism of the EA press conference would be to lump all sections of information together. Seeing the paint by numbers sports simulation bullshit mixed in with the COOL stuff I actually WANTED to see was what bothered me the most. And lumping in Criterion's creative genius in with the sports stuff is also quite honestly undermining their talent as developers, what with their WIP game looking like it'll be AMAZING.

And this praise for Ubisoft and Sony is disgusting. Co-op in Assassin's Creed, whoop dee god damn doo. They've killed that series for me with oversaturation in the same way I got fed up with CoD and haven't touched anything since MW2 and why I probably won't touch Hardline either. The Division looks like a direction-less Rainbow Six styled borderlands game. And COMPLETELY ignoring how much they covered Just Dance in the Ubisoft conference was quite a convenient thing for you to do!

Stop putting Sony and Ubisoft and Nintendo on some moral high ground, because they've ALL failed to do what they were supposed to:

Make me want their console over anything else out there in ADDITION to the gaming PC I already have.

It was a solid E3 all around this year, stop acting like anyone did anything better than others. For ONCE we FINALLY have an E3 where consistency was present on EVERYONE'S press conferences, so this constant need to debate and argue over who did something wrong or right is absolutely moronic. The ONE year the developers and publishers seem to NOT be treating us like stupid sheeple as you accuse them of thinking we are, people are claiming the opposite.

THIS is the kind of shit that makes me hate the gaming community. No consistency on opinions or logic.

tl;dr Save this tumblr/livejournal/forum posts level of complaining for where it belongs, especially when there's an obnoxious level of bias akin to that of some console fanboy during an extremely solid E3 where everyone delivered in a fantastic and all around praiseworthy manner.

 

[RedDeadFred]

No offence intended and I am only trying to be objectively critical but why is this news? Its obviously an opinion piece that contains no news and is more suited to being posted as a feature or article rather than news.

A massively biased opinion piece at that. I mean, reading the article I can't really tell what Microsoft did differently than Sony other than being Microsoft. They're both teasing games that are coming out this year and next. They both have some titles that are expected and some that aren't. Maybe this is supposed to be satire?

For me, this really read like a fanboy rant. That might be too harsh but those were the vibes I was getting from it. In all honesty, Microsoft probably had an equally decent press conference as Sony. Sony's games were a bit more exciting but they also had a really boring middle section where all they talked about was numbers, stats, etc. John conveniently left that part out.

I will say this though, out of the major developers who were there, Ubisoft did impress me the most so I guess he was right about part of it. Although, this is all just my opinion too so take what you want from it.

As far as E3 as a whole has gone, nothing has wowed me to the point where I'm going "I need to get that console for this game." Every game that I'm interested in will either be on PC (The Witcher 3) and/or on previous generation consoles (Far Cry 4).

 

[DrOswald]

The fact that you liked Sony's Televisi- Err, I mean Games presentation more than Microsoft's tells me a lot. Personally, I care about the games, not about corporate suits coming out and talking about their new BS entertainment stuff, but to each their own I guess.

Sony showed more games I cared about in the first half hour than Microsoft did in their entire presentation. They earned the right to talk about TV for 15 minutes as far as I am concerned.

 

[Johnson McGee]

Three people seeing red about this article's treatment of Microsoft that curiously have only one post each... Astroturf alert!

OT: Talking about EA treating us like idiots and not mentioning the Sims section where they basically spent 20 minutes explaining that the Sims is about creating a person and having them interact with others (as if there already hasn't been three other games in the series) is a big oversight.

 

[elvor0]

This article is angry...way to angry to have not been written just off the cuff. This reads like the blog of an angry fanboy and not a professional magazine.

Microsoft, EA and Sonys presentations were about equal, most of the stuff didn't interest me, but there was nothing wrong with them in terms of game displayed, they just didn't interest me. There were things wrong with them, the smarmy "best on playsation/xbox" false smiles and PR spin, but this article addresses none of it. It just reads as a EA AND XBOX R SHITE PLAYSTATION FOR TEH WIN!!!11! HOO RAR!

Frankly I don't what you wanted from the Halo presentation, it was a big chunk of MS presentation, furthurmore, it was a rerelease of previous games, you know what's in them. They showed you what was new, with a bit of gameplay, what more do you want? Nevermind the point that ITS A FUCKING HALO GAME. Media coverage for this is going to be huge, it's going to be on the side of busses, on TV spots and in banner adds. You could ignore e3 all together and keep up with the happenings on Halo. (Case in point, Mr Keefer himself wrote the reveal article on Halo 5 himself, just last month) Just because it wasn't the first thing they showed, doesn't mean they downplayed the presentation at all. But no, one of the biggest games on the planet didn't get shown /first/ and 10 minutes is too short so I'm going to throw a hissy fit.

Also, I liked the behind the scene footage of Mass Effect 4, Mirrors Edge and Battlefront, they're games that are in early Alpha, and showing you snippets of what they've got so far is better than just saying "Mass Effect 4/Battlefront is a thing but we can't show you anything for another year at least" There was plenty of gameplay at MS and EAs conference. Clearly the games didn't interest you, which is fine, but lets not pretend Sony showed anymore than EA or MS, because they didn't.

Furthermore, I really, really hope you notice the hypocricy in complaining about Call of Duty then spin cartwheels over a new Assassins Creed. Now I enjoy Assassins Creed, but it's just as milked as Call of Duty. And The Division footage? So scripted you could practically hear the players rustling their script papers. The Order footage was nothing but a teaser as well, there was about 60 seconds of gameplay, accuented by some cinematics. There's some serious double standards and irrational company bashing, disguised behind being on our side. If the writer represents "us" I want to fucking change sides.

Lastly, did you actually watch Sonys conference? Because there was a LOT of filler. A fuck of a lot. They did a big numbers crunch and back pat in the middle, then spent a good 15 minutes spewing corporate dribble at me at the end.

Not only that, all those games you mentioned from Sonys presentation? Lets see:

Magicka: Trailer. A live action one at that.
Grim Fandango: Zilch.
Dead Island 2: CGI trailer, so zilch.
Bloodborne: Pre-rendered Trailer. you guessed it, zilch.
Let It Die: Cinematic. No gameplay.

And you're ragging on Microsoft for a lack of gameplay?

Actually just as an aside. You lost sleep over this, really? /Really/? I lose sleep over the fact that I'm so skint I have to worry about how I'm gonna pay the rent each month or that I can't find a job, or sometimes that I moved to a forigen country where I can't understand anyone and I feel a bit homesick. But over an E3 presentation? Of course not. That's just childish first world whining.

And how did this get through the editors, what happened to the quality control? What happened to thinking "I'm clearly quite angry now, maybe I should read this article back, or wait till tomorrow"?

PS: I do notice that this post itself is quite angry. But then it's difficult not to be aggressive when the original article contains nothing of value, and I'm not working for a professional magazine.

The fact that you liked Sony's Televisi- Err, I mean Games presentation more than Microsoft's tells me a lot. Personally, I care about the games, not about corporate suits coming out and talking about their new BS entertainment stuff, but to each their own I guess.

Sony showed more games I cared about in the first half hour than Microsoft did in their entire presentation. They earned the right to talk about TV for 15 minutes as far as I am concerned.

The keyword being "I". To me, and a lot of other people, it got right on their nerves. But then he did say "each to their own".

 

[ciancon]

I will agree that I didn't see the point in Dice talking about how good they've made Faith look in Mirror's Edge. It's a first-person game, who cares what the character looks like!?

 

[Nimzabaat]

No offence intended and I am only trying to be objectively critical but why is this news? Its obviously an opinion piece that contains no news and is more suited to being posted as a feature or article rather than news.

A massively biased opinion piece at that. I mean, reading the article I can't really tell what Microsoft did differently than Sony other than being Microsoft. They're both teasing games that are coming out this year and next. They both have some titles that are expected and some that aren't. Maybe this is supposed to be satire?

For me, this really read like a fanboy rant. That might be too harsh but those were the vibes I was getting from it. In all honesty, Microsoft probably had an equally decent press conference as Sony. Sony's games were a bit more exciting but they also had a really boring middle section where all they talked about was numbers, stats, etc. John conveniently left that part out.

I will say this though, out of the major developers who were there, Ubisoft did impress me the most so I guess he was right about part of it. Although, this is all just my opinion too so take what you want from it.

As far as E3 as a whole has gone, nothing has wowed me to the point where I'm going "I need to get that console for this game." Every game that I'm interested in will either be on PC (The Witcher 3) and/or on previous generation consoles (Far Cry 4).

True enough! Though I couldn't help but notice that last year the complaint was that Microsoft wasn't talking about games. Now it's a complaint about Microsoft talking too much about games...

I also gotta say Ubisoft is getting pretty samey. I mean I liked AC4 and am enjoying Watch Dogs, but they're the same damn game. Even to the point that the faffing around is the best part. Well, with the exception of Watch Dogs: Gridlock Simulator (seriously the traffic AI needs a bit of work).