Well, this one won’t live long in the memory, will it? E3 2017 has been fine, but it’s been far from vintage, and we’re struggling to think of any one announcement or theme that we’ll remember in the days to come – yet alone years. In fact, if there’s any one defining feature that’s really stood out, it’s that it’s all been very tetchy, hasn’t it? The show seems to have been defined by PR backfires and angry, unsatisfied fans.
To be honest, we’re not entirely sure why that is. There’s been a lot of passive aggression coming through in interviews with PlayStation Europe chief Jim Ryan and Xbox boss Phil Spencer, some of it probably unintentional and some of it clearly calculated. The whole cross-console play thing seems to have dominated the discussion in enthusiast circles, and while we certainly can appreciate why it’s commanding column inches, we’re yet to be convinced it’s that big of a deal.
And the fans are at the bosom of all this: associate editor Robert Ramsey penned a great piece about the hypocrisy that’s been a running theme all week. It’s felt like, even though it hasn’t been a vintage show, the most vocal gamers have been more concerned with what they haven’t seen than what they have. And we’re not sure whether that’s a reflection of the insatiable appetite that some players have, or an indictment of the current crop of content that’s on the way.
Of course, it hasn’t been wholly negative all around. PlayStation VR, in our opinion, had a particularly good week – especially when you consider that the major concern coming into the convention was that Sony wasn’t going to support it at all. Ubisoft will also be happy: battling a hostile takeover in the boardroom, the French publisher used its press conference to both flex its creative muscle and also to recognise the humility of its biggest names.
But these have been overlooked sub-plots in a week that’s been less a celebration of gaming and a more a dancing on its grave. And it brings an age-old question back to the fore: what is the point of E3? When you’ve got Sony holding back announcements for its own show and Nintendo running a Direct that could have aired any time, it all makes you wonder: why? Opening the floor to the public’s upped attendance but irritated the media – and they, along with retailers, are the reason it exists to begin with.
The death of E3 is a line of conversation that, ironically, has been done to death – and one bad year surely doesn’t mean its game over for the great show. But E3 2017 – like the scaled back E3 2008 before it – will go down in history as one of the years where once again questions got raised. And while we’re sure normal, hype-inducing service will resume in 12 months’ time, we can’t say we’re sad to see the back of this year’s event – it’s all been a bit ill-tempered from start to finish in our eyes.
Do you disagree with our comments on the state of this year's E3? Has great software been soured by a toxic atmosphere? What have you made of the week as a whole, and what does the future hold for the convention? Look back on this year's show in the comments section below.
Comments 48
Because its E3, its primarily a trade show, and thus, for the investors.
Nah @get2sammyb E3 was really good and Gaming is boss right now.
Almost every game was awesome! The conference was fun! Push squares coverage was the best yet for sure!
There's like 40 games I want to play!
Get in Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft you've all done well. Props to ubisoft, Bethesda and EA for chipping in.
Great times now bring on the games!
I'm embarrassed it took me until now to realize the creature in GoW is Falkor from Never Ending Story. Which is fitting as E3 is a never ending story. And never ending waiting for games to release.
E3 wasn't especially memorable... Except for SHADOW OF THE FREAKING COLOSSUS.
For me that was as exciting as the first time a trailer for The Last Guardian was shown.
Yes, it was fine but nothing groundbreaking. As others have said, Ubi$oft is "the" winner since they got a lot of good reactions. AC is back, BG&E2 is there (that should have been a FFVII moment if it wasn't so niche) and Mario + Rabbids, although it had been leaked, still won a lot of sceptics with its polish.
EA and Bethesda also had strong offerings, which ironically leaves the 3 hardware manufacturers with probably the least talked about games. Except maybe Prime 4, which should really have been more than a logo at this point.
I felt like I was fairly satisfied with what was shown, at least as far as the things I am interested in are concerned. I got some good Spider-Man gameplay. God of War, Shadow of War, Days Gone, Kingdom Hearts 3, and several other games all look great. As for non-PS4 stuff that I am interested in, I was happy with what Nintendo showed.
I think cross-platform will be the take away. Which is odd as MS launched a new mid-gen console and it's the Switch's first E3, and new hardware usually dominates E3, but this year it's oh well. Mario Odyssey is game of the show for me, but I'm still not sold on Switch, not feeling the Switch hype, it's a console I need to play Mario.
i think the cross-platform story could have legs though if MS is using Minecraft as a trojan horse to get every player in the world to sign up for an Xbox Live account to play. And if Playstation gets left with the stagnant Java edition. It's hard to tell what's going on exactly with Minecraft on PC now, we'll have to wait and see when "Better Together" update rolls out if all of those PS3, PS4 and Vita owners get it.
When 8 year old Minecraft is the story of E3 they are all doing it wrong. Ubi should have won w/ BG&E2 but that's vaporware as far as I'm concerned after waiting for it in 2008.
Of the ones I watched, I thought EA's came across as 'unprofessional on the hole and I guess trying to appeal to a certain demographic - the youtube crowd. MS's was good - not necessarily outstanding - but still good and followed the traditional 'format'. People said the Xbox needed games and MS brought 42 - ok so it lacked AAA exclusives and had a number of timed exclusives as well as some indie/arcade titles but it had 'games' that can be played on Xbox. I didn't watch Bethesdas but Wolfenstein and Evil Within were new. I think the lack of 'unleaked' new content disappointed it was still OK. Ubisoft lacked the same 'nutty' presentation we have come to expect but again brought a lot of new games. Sony's was good too - I admit I found the middle a bit unappealing for me but it still had a lot of great games. Most of the 'big' games shown were shown last years and I think people were expecting a big Surprise - like Sucker Punch or From Software projects - maybe RDR2 to make an appearance but it was still packed with game after game.
I got the impression though that people went looking for a reason to cause friction. Looking to take a dig at the competition to their 'favourite' console, franchise etc. As soon as one group have a dig at something, the other fans have a dig back which escalates.
Games are much more complex and bigger nowadays too and you can't expect developers to churn out games to the standards we expect in a couple of years.
I think every show though had missing expectations. Whether it was the Star Wars games at EA's, Elder Scrolls 6 or a Fallout spinoff at Bethesda, whether it was some big AAA first party game(s) at MS to go with XBX or Sucker Punch/From Software at Sonys. So maybe the press build up also has to take some responsibility for the disappointments - leading gamers to expect more than they got...
As that prior article illustrated, gamers just don't know what to expect of E3 beyond the abstract whims and the honestly primitive "wow us to the moon or E3 is one foot in the grave" dichotomy. Perhaps it helped in my case that I wasn't interested in E3 before this year - so despite the hype I had, I came in looking at E3 as just another event like TGS, a gaming expo to serve as a generously condensed outlet for gaming news BEYOND specific platforms and publishers. PSXs and Nintendo Directs are great to have and fill out the year with, but do you get PS4 and Vita* announcements in Nintendo Directs? Switch and 3DS announcements at PSX? I rest my case. E3 is one big helping of gaming news; even when covered titles cause last year deja vu, chances are there's new gameplay footage, trailer or something like that. You get multiple publishers and developers talking about their work within the same week - would this scenario be possible even coincidentally without events like E3 in existence? I came in to be informed, not wowed to the moon - and I came out aware or more conscious of a whole bunch of announced games across several platforms that interest and even excite me. My wallet will likely respond in kind later. That's about it. E3 is a celebration of gaming in the very fact of its existence, the very fact that video games are a thing motivating its industry to plan a gathering like this, invest solid money into simultaneous conferences and promos like this, invite audiences and media to share this time together like this.
And hype will always be a natural feeling about such events. But DEMANDING the event to floor us every year is akin to winning at a lottery and kindly informing the ticket seller that you hereby hold them responsible for your little daughter's full scholarship and wedding expenses.
Monster Hunter World makes me want to leap with joy. I love Monster Hunter to bits. So for me, this E3 has been very memorable. I used to be a Nintendo fanboy but now I am converting in two weeks to Horizon Zero Dawn and that heart throbbing monster hunter gameplay experience in 2018
@themcnoisy I'm glad you're super excited and I actually agree with you, but you can't ignore the tone that's dominated this week, and it has been quite unsavoury IMO.
Wolfenstein 2
Evil Within 2
SOTC remake
Monster Hunter
Happy days.
Was missing some Final Fantasy and Metal Gear Solid, but that's life.
Role on PSE, maybe we'll see what From Software and Suckerpunch are up to.
I think enough good games were shown to appeal to almost everybody. It wasn't the best E3 by far but it wasn't the worst either.
@themcnoisy I agree with you, I've enjoyed it as much as always and we have many great games coming for whichever platform your playing on.
For me that's given me quite a lot to look forward to on PS4 and whilst that didn't get many surprises, VR certainly did with both Doom and Skyrim not to mention Superhot VR. Yes we had the whole cross play thing but I don't think it's really that big a deal, at least not until somebody suggests it for all the major FPS titles and such.
Ultimately E3 has left me with a huge shopping list of great upcoming games such as Days Gone, God of War, Spiderman, Destiny 2, that game which looks a bit like Destiny, Yakuza 1 and 6, Ni No Kuni, VR stuff and many more. Yes light on surprises but not on great games
Unpopular opinion on this site, but I freaking just don't like VR, and don't care one bit when they show VR stuff off.
i stopped reading most general gaming sites years ago since they generally descend into fanboy wars/trolling/flame bait, so most of what i saw of E3 was viewed through official youtube videos, so not really sure/aware of how tetchy it got. jim ryan is known for the odd PR blunder, so i'm surprised sony doesn't have somebody with a bit of more of an affable demeanour doing the rounds. i was under the impression that phil spencer had adopted a less bullish approach than the mattrick era xbox, but i suppose now that they'll have a more powerful console for a while, it'll be less concillatory and more demeaning.. when you've boned your original consumers 3 times already in the xbox one era, it should be aware that it could easily get overtaken again in the power game if sony times it right.
as for the games, for me there was rather a large sense of deja vu. development cycles can be so long these days, that it almost seems inevitable that games will appear again (i honestly wouldn't be surprised to see days gone at E3 2018 as well). the problem is if many of the publishers decided to wait until they are 100% sure a game will release before the next E3, there could be a year in which they have almost nothing to show. there was also quite a lot revealed or leaked before the show. destiny 2 for example.. everybody suspected it was coming, but we'd already seen the entire first mission gameplay, a strike walkthrough, and a release date way before E3. if that had been saved for E3, it might have made more of a talking point. the same could be said for other games that announced in the month or so before E3.
annual/bi-annual franchises are known entities, whilst people are looking forward/anticipating them, not sure they have the same initial excitement at these things as a new ip. assassin's creed may have looked visually very impressive, but to me it looked like the same old assassin's creed in a different environment. after playing 4 of them, i don't think i can play this franchise again. assassin's creed isn't the only culprit of this.
I'm in agreement with the general consensus that Nintendo "won" E3 this year, but just give us cross play, Sony. We want it. Imagine Rocket League or Fifa or whatever p2p game when it's against "one of them", it'd make for a better competitive and livlier online community!
Regardless I'm happy to be a gamer. Long live video games !!!!
I lurk several game sites daily and never created an account but I created one on this site because I enjoy reading Sammy
@PotatoTheG Have you tried it?
@Themanhutch Thank you!
I thought it was great. Many many games I want to play. Push Square had great coverage as well. I was able to catch all the trailers and extras that I missed. Well done!
I loved all the exclusive trailers at Sony so i was blown away so many great games. I really dont understand all the negative crying and crossplay i dont need it. I rather play against people on the same network.
I think people have unrealistic expectations when going into E3, this week has been a result of that. God of War 2018 on base hardware looks phenomenal, Spiderman 2018, Days Gone 2018, The Lost Legacy 2017, The Frozen Wilds 2017, Detroit: Become Human TBA, Monster Hunter: World 2018, Shadow of The colossus 2018, Ni No Kuni II 2017, Knack 2 2017, Matterfall 2017, Lawbreakers 2017. So i'm happy with what is coming especially with big 3rd party games releasing also, Sony also has exclusive content too.
Cross play doesn't excite me in the slightest. I'm at an age now where I'm shying away slightly from MP games. Or if I do play them, for eg. Uncharted MP, fifa, pes,madden. I'll happily play with randoms. There's plenty people on psn to play with at any given time. Having someone on a different console will hardly make a difference imo. Same experience.
A miserable E3. That doesn't mean there aren't plenty of games upcoming that I want to play, this year's E3 just seemed boring and safe on the whole. I honestly did think the best announcement was that Metroid Prime 4 is on the way. The fact I was that hyped over just getting confirmation and nothing else tells how unsurprising and unmemorable this year's show was. At least Sony admitted it held back on some stuff so that gives me hope for TGS or PS Experience.
Spider-Man wasn't on my radar at all and now definately is. Same with SW Battlefront 2.
I wasn't that fussed about Super Mario Odyssey or Splatoon 2 previously but now they can't come fast enough.
Sony has a lot of games for e3, the problem is most of it announced before sony conference. Sony e3 conference will be way better if kingdom hearts 3 trailer, dissidia nt trailer, senua sacrifices release date & price, gt sport release date, and crash coco trailer is announced in their e3 conference rather than in youtube before e3.
Also after seeing all the misinformation about mh world, I think it's better if before announcing it sony/capcom tell the audience that this is the new mainline mh from capcom japan.
At least it was win for the VR community as a whole.
The only way is UP!
E3 is an odd beast isn't it? I mean we got a stack of games previewed, a lot available in the next 12 months and we, collectively, are a little disappointed but give us loose reveals of games not due for another 3+ years and we lose it. I include myself in that, I totaly went nuts for TLOU2 when it was revealed at PSX. I think we need to divorce the entertainment factor from the games themselves.
I think from an entertainment perspective, this year disappointed. It was fairly safe, even the XbX1 reveal felt slightly muted for new hardware. We won't be sharing this year in any best E3 moments in future years.
From a game perspective, this year was actually quote solid. A stack of Sony exclusives coming in the next 12-18 months that I want to play, a lot of third party and indie titles and VR is getting some titles that are getting me excited. So, really, I have nothing to complain about!
As for the odd sparring after the conference, I don't really get it. Sony aren't doing cross platform on some games in the same way MS didn't do it last generation. A few execs have said some thinks off the cuff.
It was a mix of variety and pushing boundaries that made this E3 exciting for me. Nintendo and Microsoft showed great games with a good chunk releasing in 2017, indies really flexed their muscles, and cross-platform play means bigger online communities.
Sony impressed but a lot is up in the air for me. Don't know if I'll dig the change to God of War, it seems to be more about keeping enemies in a cone in front of Kratos rather than managing multiple surrounding enemies in previous entries. Don't care about SotC, good for folks who've been waiting for that but one release and an HD re-release is more than enough for me, not interested in Sony repackaging PS2 games and then saying no one wants BC for PS4. Spider-Man is getting the full Arkham treatment, there will be QTEs and villain/costume DLC up the yazoo. A couple of PSVR games don't really need to be exclusive to that platform.
I have to say Phil "everybody's friend" Spencer was digging into Sony quit a bit this E3. I know he's on full PR assault now with XboneX but where did all his "I'm friends with everyone" attitude go?!
Lol, I don't buy his BS and he puts me off wanting an Xbox rather than selling it to me...
The biggest problem is the leaks. If the leaks stop, the announcements will have a lot more impact.
I was pretty darn happy with it. Several games I want are coming, and it actually made me want a few new ones (did NOT think I was going to like the look of that Mario+Rabbids game, and MH World looks a lot better than I was fearing it might)
Microsoft's conference was kind of terrible, but they're always terrible. Nothing new there.
@Dodoo I can't imagine why anybody would buy an Xbox One X, period. All you're getting a more powerful PS4 Pro with a way worse library.
@Ralizah "way worse library"? Why because it hasn't got Horizon: ZD, TLoU, Uncharted, Days Gone etc.? XBX will still have its own exclusives (Don't care they are also on PC, not everyone is interested in them) as well as CoD WW2, SWBF2, FIFA 18, AC:O etc. all the biggest 3rd party games that will probably run better than on PS4 Pro. I'm happy to pay £450 to upgrade from my XB1 S as well as others I'd imagine who care about games running better on XBX.
@MaccaMUFC I have news for you: if a game is also on PC, it's not an exclusive. Almost none of their exclusives since the launch of the Xbone besides Rare Replay, The Master Chief Collection, and Sunset Overdrive have even been good. And, no, I really doubt the majority of games will perform significantly better on XBX: at best, you'll get games that look slightly nicer than they do on PS4 Pro while missing out on all of Playstation's awesome exclusive games.
All you'll be doing is paying half a grand for a gimped gaming PC, except gaming PCs have WAY, WAY better libraries than any console could ever hope to have (full backwards compatibility and access to older exclusives on other systems through emulation) and an enormous suite of multimedia software.
Don't get me wrong: if you're excited for XBX, then that's fine. I don't want to be down on things that make other people happy. I just can't imagine any possible reason to invest in one.
@Ralizah As I already said I'm not interested in PCs nor do I intend to ever own one. So if a game is out also out on PC it's irrelevant to me as I only game on consoles so therefore to me a game is really exclusive to XBX even if it is also out on PC.
The XBX maybe is almost half a grand but how much would it cost to run games at the same level on PC? I'm willing to bet it will cost a lot more than £450/$500
I'll actually really benefit from owning an XBX as I have a 4K HDR TV so for me the price will be worth it. As for the games, that's just a matter of opinion, I prefer gaming on XBX for both first party and third party rather than on PS4 but I am wanting a Pro for Days Gone and some other exclusives.
@MaccaMUFC That is true: it's a matter of opinion. For me, I'm primarily interested in the Japanese exclusives on PS4. I have little interest in Horizon, Days Gone, God of War, etc. And that, at the end of the day, is also the biggest strike against XBX for me: it won't and will never have decent Japanese support.
It's interesting that you're so opposed to PC gaming, though. May I ask why?
@get2sammyb It was Shiba's Unsavioury Snack.
The Talking Dead in memorium jokes aside there were a few good announcements and trailers, but as a whole, I agree that it was rather lacklustre...
@Ralizah Well we like completely opposite games, I like anything but Japanese games I find them to be completely bonkers, weird, other worldly but that's just me, there's obviously a massive audience out there that's doing it for them.
I have nothing against gaming PCs but they just don't appeal to me, I used to own one years ago back when Half Life 1 and 2 first came out but have since just played on consoles, mainly Xbox. I find PCs to be a carry on be it upgrading, installing, things are more likely to go wrong and can be a carry on getting a game to run properly, it does no help that I'd have no clue what I'd be doing with either hardware or software.
I thought most of the games shown looked great, especially if you add up all the games across each of the conferences.
I think the shakey start with EA set a negative vibe as I felt it was really poor and while MS misfired in respect of pushing their own products, the multi platform games they showed looked fantastic.
While i wasnt blown away with it, I was satisfied with Sony's conference if I am honest, everything they showed looked fantastic.
There was plenty to be excited for and I feel that just one more new announcement would have changed the perception of their conference completely, just one game more and the whole impression would be different.
And then there is Nintendo, they sold the Switch to me at this year's E3, just with Mario alone, it looked fabulous. Going into E3 I was expecting to come away wanting a Scorpio....what a turn around!
For me, seeing that "game changer" Jesse Wellens(?) fall to pieces during the EA show made this year's E3 one of the best ever!
Games wise, there is nothing I'm itching to play or rushing to pre order, beyond good & evil 2 reveal disappointed - too sweary and not even sure how it linked to first game.
Roll on the next big game show!
E3 wasn't really all that great except for the fact Sony had the games I love. Spider-Man is the game that won the Sony conference and by far my most anticipated day one purchase . I am looking forward to buying Detroit become human also but no idea when it's released. I like Days Gone and GOW but not in love with them. Sony treated E3 like a step child for ps experience. Uncharted lost legacy should be a great game but Its more of uncharted 4 which is my favorite franchise but not my favorite game. I hope it's much better than UC 4.
My day one purchases this yr are Need for Speed, UC lost legacy(unless bad reviews) and Battlefront 2. Knack 2 is high on my list for a potential day one buy. Madden after many yrs of skipping it is a potential buy due to story mode and frostbite engine conversion.
My issue with madden franchise is its monopoly and getting rid of Competition from 10 yrs ago of NFL 2k. I am from orlando and lived their during the time madden pushed nfl2k out of the market. NFL 2k even out of desperation last game was $20 at launch and many people including me thought it was becoming better than madden. Then at E3 17 I couldn't find gameplay of madden since they wouldn't allow any gamer to take videos. So this has already soured me from the potentially buying this yrs game.
Anthem looks like a great game and only the makers of the 2 brothers game showed new games that interest me.
Microsoft has no games that interest me enoug to buy a $500 console. So I will continue to stick with PS4 which Sony has been the only console I buy. Sony doesn't have to or need to do cross play with Microsoft and I am sure if Xbox was in the lead they wouldn't be willing to cross play either.
Edit:
Wolfenstein is the other game this yr I am looking forward to playing since I loved The New Order. Metro exodus was another great trailer and I immediately knew what the game was from the beginning of the trailer. I loved playing the metro redux(2 games) and looking forward to that release.
There were great games but the actually show after the conferences seem to not show enough live demos of games I wanted to see. The live demo of detroit become human and days gone alternate path were great.
I wasn't impressed with AC origins but I appreciated them showing live demos at every interview they went to. At too many interviews developers only showed the trailers of their games instead of playing the game. E3 has become too corporate and I got tired of hearing about closed door footage of games or demos played like UC lost legacy, wolfenstein and Spider-Man. Now I hear June 20th ND will show the extended footage of lost legacy instead of them doing it at E3.
Sony also did stupid stuff like show knack 2, Nino kuni and GT sports before the conference which makes no darn sense.
Even though I didn't watch it, I went onto here and Nintendolife to look at the games that were announced. Sony has some good games coming, granted I would have rather wanted ICO then Shadow Of Colossus. It gives me even more games that I'd like to have for PS4, with the fact that there is already enough coming out for it that look good, many that are already out that I would like, and a backlog of titles already owned for it. Nintendo's was good too! Lots of games coming out for the Switch that actually gets me wanting to go out and purchase it finally! I wasn't sure about the Switch when it was announced, and to this day, there is still only Zelda out for it that gets me excited for it...now, Mario Odyssey, Mario and Rabbids, Kirby and Yoshi...now it seems like it's worth it to me.
As for the rest, I have no idea what was announced for XBONE, but would like to know what was that won't be on PS4 or Switch. And, there's still more time that companies will announce more games coming between now and the holidays, and we still don't know everything that Sony will announce for the store-front side! Who knows, many more PS2 classics, maybe the addition of PS1 titles, more PSP or VITA titles getting added, possibly PS3 games being added to the store or even some really goodies like Sega adding Dreamcast titles or other companies for a massive virtual arcade section of it! Plus, who knows what will be added to future system updates (hoping for many that PS3 already has and the possibility of actually being able to play regular DVD's on the system itself). Even if the presentations of E3 weren't that grand, we still have 6 months to see what else will be added...I'm actually glad they didn't give everything away, makes people hyped for what could be next!
@Lovespuds if Sony just didn't have the pre show and had those games at the conference would have made a slight difference.
@Ralizah exactly, plus the so call Microsoft exclusives aren't really that interesting like crackdown 3, state of decay and sea of thieves. Crackdown was switched from regular graphics to cell shaded and looks like a PS3 game. The gunplay looks weak for crackdown and isn't a system seller in my opinion. Only ori and cuphead interest me from Xbone.
@BAMozzy I agree great games are taking 4-5 yrs to make. Another reason is that too many AAA games are shown weeks out before E3. So E3 has become diluted because the big AAA games are getting so much coverage before E3.
I think Nintendo's announcement made E3 2017 a pretty dang great one, personally.
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