15 June, 2014

Post E3

written by Blain Newport on Sunday, 15 June 2014

There was an E3. It happened again. A humbled Microsoft focused entirely on games. Sony wasted a little time on non-game stuff, but their press conference was longer, so they probably had a similar amount of game time. Nintendo had action figures to announce, but they tried to field as many games as they could.

When business isn't the greatest, companies change their game plans. Microsoft retreats to the core, hoping that they'll continue to get the boxes into enough living rooms for them to Trojan horse in their higher margin media distribution services. Sony does pretty much the same thing, with a bit more focus on indies. And Nintendo shows games earlier in development.

We all knew this before E3 started, but the real winner was 2015. That's when most of the games showed are coming out. Every time the fidelity goes up, the amount of money and therefore risk in releasing each game goes up. A rushed bad game has little chance of making that money back, so companies are forced to delay. Hopefully this will mean more polished big budget games. But if you spend an extra year on development and still fail to move units, good luck with your new indie studio, adjective   animal  Games, and Kickstarter campaign. :P

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