Game news Can the 2021 Game Awards reverse E3?
Last week, as is now customary in December, the Game Awards took place and with them a wealth of games were unveiled. Between thunderous announcements, spectacular trailers, and a few awards shows, the event that the media hides Geoff Keighley had more of an E3 aura than a ceremony aimed at rewarding the year’s outstanding releases.
A spectacular show
3h30 show, it’s a long time and you have to fill this time dynamically if you don’t want to lose your audience, and the Game Awards certainly didn’t save on funds. Actresses, actors, orchestras, singers took part in the ceremony and in the tunnel of announcements and trailers designed to show what the industry has in store for us in the coming years. And we have to admit that the announcements were quite eye-catching and everyone was talking about the ceremony after the curtain fell.. And for good reason, if a video game ceremony manages to match trailers of Horizon: Forbidden West, Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II, Alan Wake II, or even a technical demo of Unreal Engine 5 based on Matrix, it all has to do with it that she is looking to hunt E3 on her own territory.
An E3 already in decline
In fact, the Los Angeles show isn’t going through the simplest period of its existence. With a canceled 2020 edition and a mixed 2021 version regarding announcements, announcements also vampirized by Geoff Keighley and his Summer Game Fest, the E3 appears to have been in a weak position for two years. The Covid-19 epidemic, which seems to be talked about over and over again, has heavily abused the holding of physical events. And one has to acknowledge that the E3 2021 has lost some of its event character due to the lack of an on-site edition. A number of press presentations have greatly reduced the number of previews, and where the show usually takes place over a long week, this year’s show stopped, in the collective unconscious, at the end of the conference, cut off again from the presence of Sony, which has now decided to walking alone and managing your own communication plan.
The Game Awards, too, with their lavish revelations made it feel like the E3 that the public didn’t have this year. This is not surprising, and the promoter had already tried to put it in the spotlight by launching the Summer Game Fest just before E3 2021 began.. The Game Awards, which have grown in strength over the years, are like another blow to traditional salons to say that now you have to count with the Keighley team to broadcast the most exclusive exclusive shows.
Very scattered game awards
The Game Awards, however, represent a somewhat scattered ceremony. Logically, it is assumed that everything is in the name of the event. The Game Awards are primarily intended to honor the games that made headlines last year and thus highlight their creators. Gradually, the event took on the side of a spectacular conference, which ultimately only put the winners in a very relative light. When we understand the need to add a little spectacular breath to the ceremony in order to attract a large audience, put a little more emphasis on the actors and actresses who made the games that made the industry vibrate, the essence of what those “video game Oscars” should be. It is therefore more of a show dedicated to game announcements than a real awards show. And if the common core remains the celebration of video games, the Game Awards don’t hesitate to take an interest in the expanded universe, or at least be associated with the practice of video games. Concert, movie trailer, the Game Awards are now plural and Sting mixed up with Keanu Reeves and Josef Fares in a ceremony with various announcements. The event therefore assumed a larger scope, and Geoff Kighley has tried to show that it is his responsibility that world premieres hold the best place in his organization and that they get the media coverage they deserve.
Is that a warning sign of the sustainability of E3? Not necessarily. Beyond the conferences, which are certainly the highlight of the LA show internationally, the entire dimension of the press presentation has not yet reached the Game Awards. The E3 is intended to enable a whole section of the public or industry professionals not to be satisfied with the sight of a trailer. It is often possible to play the featured games or at least attend more advanced presentations than is revealed in a trailer of a few minutes. It therefore makes sense for ESA to maintain proximity to the experts so that a lot of concrete information can be made available to the public over a week in the form of previews or even interviews. In order to maintain its effectiveness, however, the ESA must also keep all eyes on itself and must therefore ensure the sustainability of strong partnerships in the future as well. With Sony avoiding the show for a number of years, even though their conferences were considered the highlight of this summer event for many, E3 was a bit weakened and the health crisis that crippled much of the planet in 2020 did nothing.
If it is not possible to completely reinvent itself and leave the field open to other events for suitable unifying exclusives, the E3 could be in danger. If the discourse about hosting a semi-physical, semi-online show seems to hold for the time being, it remains to be seen whether the announcements that normally make the E3 an integral part of the calendar will be there.
Through [87], Journalist igamesnews.com
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