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Is E3 Still Relevant in 2016?

Is E3 Still Relevant in 2016?

Recently I’ve woken up way before my typical alarm time to catch several livestreams. I just had to be there for the Persona 5 show that Atlus put on outside Tokyo Tower. I sat up in bed with my coffee, dazed but excited, as thousands of others flooded the Twitch room with frenzied chatter and speculation. It was so much fun knowing that I was sharing the same live experience and vibing off of the same rush of anticipation as thousands of other fans. Every noise, every song change, every transition, and every new image or video would set off the room. And the best part? I was there when Atlus finally revealed the initial release date for the most anticipated game in its history. I was part of that story, and that’s something that I never could have experienced ten years ago.

Things have changed. Now that high-speed internet is available to pretty much anyone, if not in their homes then at least in public libraries and through mobile networks, information is distributed much faster than we can comprehend. If there’s an earthquake in Japan, I might hear about it in Tennessee through a tweet before someone living in a city near the epicenter feels any seismic activity. If a GameStop employee snaps a picture of some box art for a secret game at 7:00 in the morning, the entire industry is circulating the headline by 8:00, and that’s just what we’re used to now. Used to be, you never learned about new games unless you saw them on a TV show, happened across a commercial, or saw the game announced at a show like E3 or the Tokyo Game Show.

But now we have big headlines every single day. As the average consumer has grown accustomed to always having something to look forward to, investors and shareholders expect publishers and developers to satisfy those expectations. I woke up early for that Persona 5 stream, I woke up for the new Pokemon Sun & Moon trailer, I was there to see Infinity Ward show off the most disliked trailer in YouTube history, and I was there to see DICE show off the most liked trailer in YouTube history. That was all within the span of a single, normal week.

Is E3 Still Relevant in 2016?

E3 and other big conventions just aren’t as relevant or necessary as they used to be. Publishers and companies are still going to save some big announcements for these shows, of course. There is still a fair amount of residual hype that lingers there, and you simply can’t recreate the excitement of a large, live crowd seeing and reacting to something for the very first time. These shows also have the benefit of a huge floor space with plenty of premier game demos and big personalities giving insightful interviews.

Livestreams are more empowering, though. They’re more empowering for the publishers and for gamers who all get that front seat to the big show. It is very telling that Infinity Ward and DICE both revealed their biggest games of 2016 a month before E3. Nintendo will hardly have an E3 presence at all! Instead, it’s going to reveal the NX – which could be its biggest and most important console announcement in the company’s history – through a Nintendo Direct or some other streamed event of its own. Its plans will in no way be dictated by, or scheduled around, E3.

I see this as a positive thing, but I’d like to know what you guys think. Are you disappointed that E3 isn’t the spectacle that it once was, or are you glad that now we practically always have a big date to look forward to right around the corner? Does the fact that Nintendo won’t be holding an E3 Direct or live presentation mean the company is struggling, or does it mean E3 is just irrelevant now? There might be a third option in there somewhere, but I wouldn’t be an effective journalist if I didn’t at least try to make you take a hard stance. Give me a shout and let me know what you think.

Cover Image Credit: Wii U Daily

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