Summer Game Fest was a good media event, but where does it go from here? | Opinion
Sign up for the GI Daily here to get the biggest news straight to your inbox
There was a moment on Sunday when it felt like E3 again.
Microsoft's showcase may have been a digital stream, but there was a small auditorium where people could sit and watch. The fans were there, doing the usual whopping and hollering. Phil Spencer, Sarah Bond, Matt Booty, Todd Howard and the Microsoft exec team appeared on the stage. It was smaller, but it wasn't a million miles away from the Xbox press conferences of old.
As the Starfield video began airing, I took the opportunity to leave – I could watch it later – and frantically typed up my review of what I'd seen. By the time that was live, I was called into a panel with the Xbox execs, and then I was ushered into a deep dive session on the new Forza Motorsport.
This was just like E3. AAA games, business leaders, and back-to-back news and insight on the future for games.
And then… it stopped. I didn't have another appointment for five hours. That would never have been the case at E3. So I typed up the panel and went for a walk.
Summer Game Fest, and its associated events, were not E3. And in many ways that was a great thing, and in some ways it wasn't.
Even if E3 had happened, it would have been a week that underdelivered on its reputation for major games and big reveals. Across the three biggest showcases, only a handful of new titles were revealed (although there were far more when you factor in the various indie events). Geoff Keighley's showcase featured an incredible 42 games, but only eight were entirely new projects. There were some good ones, such as Prince of Persia and Sonic, but it was mostly updates on previously announced games or new content for existing service
Read more on gamesindustry.biz
