It’s E3 and Summer Game Fest season so it means it’s time for our annual Winners and Losers article. On Saturday, Ubisoft, Devolver Digital, and Gearbox took their respective stages to show off their latest games. Some were hits, others were huge misses. Here are the winners and losers from Saturday’s events.
Winners
Devolver Digital – Of the three major companies to hold press conferences on Saturday, Devolver Digital stood out as the best of the best. Their whole approach to their presentation this year was to make fun of monetization and the publishers who exploit their players in the name of it. So, they came up with “Monetization as a Service”, and, in turn, revealed a new “subscription service” Devolver MaxPass+. This joke subscription service lets players become members for free and purchase their premium content, which is their games.
Between the self-deprecating humor, dunks on monetizing as a whole, and having a strange fascination with chili dogs, Devolver Digital debuted loads of appealing new games that are set to release this year and next year. Games like Death’s Door, Trek to Yomi, Wizard with a Gun, Shadow Warrior 3, Inscryption, Phantom Abyss, Terra Nil, Devolver Tumble Time, and the only physical release of Demon Throttle. You can read more about them here.
Overall, the showcase was incredibly entertaining and got me excited for all of their games. Furthermore, I didn’t feel like I wasted time watching it, which is so important in spending time watching these showcases. Plus, I even went out of my way to become a subscriber to Devolver MaxPass+. I may have even bought a shirt to show off my lifetime membership…I did.
The Avatar Franchise – One of the major highlights from the excessively long Ubisoft Forward show was the reveal of Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora. The high-octane, visually stunning cinematic trailer transported players back to Pandora, a place that hasn’t been explored since 2009. The game is set to release on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC in 2022, which may in fact be before the next film in the franchise releases. How crazy is that?
Fans of the 2009 film have had to wait over a decade for the next film to release. Despite having 4 sequels greenlit, James Cameron & co. have consistently pushed back the project’s release further and further. So much so that the hype for Avatar may have dwindled quite a bit. So, it was a refreshing sight on Saturday to see that an Avatar game is on the horizon and it appears to capture the lush, dangerous world of Pandora better than any of us could’ve hoped for.
Giancarlo Esposito & Far Cry Villains – Later on, we’ll talk about why Ubisoft was not a winner on Saturday. That said, they were responsible for some pretty wicked and cool moments. The clip of Far Cry 6 and the reveal of Season Pass DLC that puts you in the shoes of Far Cry’s most iconic villains were part of that.
For starters, Giancarlo Esposito is just an incredible actor. Whether it’s film, television, or now in gaming with Far Cry 6, he always owns the room. When you see him coming, you just know that someone is going to die and he’ll convince you that it was all justified in the end. That’s exactly what he did in the Far Cry 6 clip on Saturday. Just when everyone thought they were safe on a boat, leaving the country. He easily takes control of the boat and coolly delivered a monologue about fishing, tying it into the refugees’ current predicament, killing someone mid-speech, and finishing it up with words of warning to his stowaway son before taking him back. It was intense, thrilling, and made me want to experience more.
I’m really glad that in both Ubisoft Forward and Summer Game Fest Kickoff that Giancarlo Esposito has been highlighted, because he’s pretty much the sole reason why I and many others want to play Far Cry 6, at this moment.
It was also an awesome choice for Ubisoft to make the Season Pass DLC all about past villains. The Far Cry series has some of the best villains in video game history with Vaas, Pagan Min, and Joseph Seed. So, to get to see things through their point of view is a nifty way of keeping these characters relevant and providing context to their motives and actions.
Mario + Rabbids: Spark of Hope – Before Ubisoft held their press conference, Nintendo spilled the beans on the Mario + Rabbids sequel. In reality, it really didn’t matter that the surprise had been spoiled. That’s due to a stellar trailer for a game series that was a surprise hit a few years ago. Ubisoft didn’t need pomp, they didn’t need circumstance, all they needed was an exciting trailer to pull players in and get them pumped for the next chapter in the Mario + Rabbids saga. Tip of the plumber’s cap to them.
Losers
Ubisoft – You may be wondering how Ubisoft could be considered a loser after 3 out of the 4 winners were Ubisoft games. Simple, because their show was two hours long with a majority of games that just didn’t generate much excitement.
They kicked off the show with an hour long pre-show that had some general update news for existing games, which is all well and good. But what really had me and the gaming community frustrated were the 5-10 minute long scenes of video game characters just meandering. It did nothing to get players excited, but just ate up time. You know, we don’t need pre-shows, let alone ones that go one for an hour.
When the show did officially start, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Extraction was the premiere that kicked everything off, which yeah it was a cool premise, but there’s just major fatigue with Tom Clancy games in the industry. It has become their new Assassin’s Creed with a new game shown every year. The major difference this time was that you’re fighting aliens. I mean, yeah, that’s cool. Can we just have a break from Tom Clancy games, please?
Then, they showed a few other games like Riders Republic and Rocksmith that look cool, in theory, but they weren’t anything to really write home about. For starters, how many people within the general gaming community can say that they still play Ubisoft sports games. Visually, it looks incredible, but these aren’t the type of games that people want to see when they tune in. As for Rocksmith, this type of game can have an indelible mark on people’s lives for years to come, as people learn to play guitar. But it just seems like a missed opportunity for it to release this year versus last year when people had a lot more time on their hands to commit to learning guitar.
The rest of the conference was a mix of updates for existing games and the winners I described above. All followed by developers talking about how they made the games without actually saying anything. Then, they ended the presentation with a lengthy post-show for Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege. Why? Why do we need a post-show for a show that took two hours already?
Ubisoft really needs to look at the scheduling and the formatting of these events. Players, media, and industry members wind up spending all their time watching this event hoping for a major announcement for a game they want to see, only to either be disappointed or dissatisfied that they either didn’t see it or that it took too long to see it. I for one left the showcase feeling like I had wasted a lot of my Saturday.
Ubisoft Games Absent from UbiForward – If there’s anyone who suffered the most from Ubisoft Forward, it was their fans. Fans like our very own TV expert Rob who is a known Ubisoft superfan. They sat for the entirety of the presentation hoping to see updates for games like Beyond Good & Evil 2, Skull & Bones, and maybe even Splinter Cell, which is something that will be pleaded for until the end of time.
Yet, none of those top tier IPs showed up to Ubisoft Forward. It’s especially alarming that there was no update at all for Beyond Good & Evil 2. In fact, it’s been well over a year since we’ve heard anything about it, let alone seen new footage for it. They came out of the gate so strong when it was initially revealed, and now nothing.
As for Skull & Bones, it’s been reported that this game had to restart development from the ground up. I think fans would’ve appreciated some sort of statement from Ubisoft regarding that news, much like Nintendo did for Metroid Prime 4. That level of transparency is what fans yearn for and for Ubisoft to keep quiet isn’t how you keep your fans.
Gearbox – Did you know that Gearbox is making a Borderlands movie? Well, if you watched the Gearbox Showcase then you do now! That’s because Gearbox Founder & CEO Randy Pitchford took viewers to the set of the Borderlands movie to show that they are making a movie. He also interviewed the producers of the film and director Eli Roth about how they are making a movie. In fact, roughly half of the showcase was about how they are making a movie.
When they did actually get to the games, they just rehashed the same footage previously shown at Summer Game Fest Kickoff. They did this with Tiny Tina’s Wonderland and Tribes of Midgard, with the only difference being that they had interviews with the developers who, due to NDAs, didn’t add much.
The only real new announcement had to do with Godfall going to PS4, which in and of itself seemed more like a corrective measure than it did a big substantial reveal. Leading up to the release of the PlayStation 5, Gearbox tried to hype up their looter-slasher only for the game to not live up to expectations, partly due to the fact that PS5 supply was so limited. Therefore, Gearbox is bringing the game to PS4 to try and cull more players to play their major investment. The reality is Gearbox should’ve released Godfall on PS4 to begin with or at least on both consoles to build up their player base.
In the midst of all that, Gearbox strangely kept sandwiching their Homeworld Remastered Collection and the fact that Homeworld 3 was in development between other reveals. It was just so odd, because it almost felt like they were beating a dead horse. We get it, Homeworld 3 is in development.
Overall, the Gearbox showcase was extremely underwhelming and seemed geared towards hyping up the film more than the actual games themselves. That much is evident from how they kicked off the show talking about making the Borderlands movie and how they ended with Kevin Hart talking about making the Borderlands movie. At one point, Kevin Hart even said, “You guys don’t even know what I’m doing, how I’m doing, or why I’m doing it.” You’re right, Mr. Hart, because NO ONE IS SAYING ANYTHING OF SUBSTANCE. Behind the scenes videos are only great when the movie has already released because people are free to speak openly about it. It’s just frustrating when the movie is being filmed because no one can say anything more than “We’re making a movie.”
E3 Co-streamers – The ESA continues to not make friends. One of the best parts of big events like E3 2021 and Summer Game Fest is co-streaming the events and watching them together with your favorite streamers both big and small. This year, the ESA only approved a select few people and organizations to be able to co-stream their part of the event. One of those not approved was Summer Game Fest and The Game Awards creator Geoff Keighley who was hit with a warning, along with several other streamers trying to co-stream the event.
The ESA then released a statement regarding co-streaming, saying:
“We welcome anyone who would like to co-stream the event to do so, it just wouldn’t be in an “official” capacity.
E3’s goal with official co-streaming is to embrace the creator community, and since this is the first time we have ever done official co-streaming with creators, we decided on a small select group this year to monitor the opportunity and see how we can apply it to future E3s.
Out of all the applicants, less than 100 creators/brands were selected for official co-streaming, which consisted of our official distribution service and media partners as well as a diverse group of influencers and creators who consistently create video game content across YouTube, Twitch and/or Facebook.
Again, we welcome everyone who’s interested to co-stream, we’re just reminding them to recognize the terms of service for each platform.”
Sure, Jan. The issue here is the less than 100 creators/brands that were selected for official co-streaming. Why not be inclusive and let all streamers both big and small, veteran and new stream the event with their followers? Why be so exclusive? In the case of Geoff Keighley, he was able to get approval to co-stream from individual developers, even though he also applied for official co-streaming access, to which he didn’t get a response. That likely has more to do with the ESA being petty with Mr. Keighley after their falling out and him subsequently creating a rival event. However, most people are not Geoff Keighley and they don’t have that reach to get that kind of approval.
The ESA can act like they cultivate an inclusive environment all they want, but this co-streaming debacle proves otherwise. They can blame the individual channels, but the onus first and foremost falls on them for not allowing more streamers the ability and accessibility to co-stream their event.
These were our winners and losers from Saturday’s events. Have any of your own? Tweet us @cinelinx to share your winners and losers list. Stay tuned for more E3 2021 and Summer Game Fest coverage.