There’s no point in asking the question of what was the best event of this gaming summer, because the answer is so obvious that it doesn’t even deserve to be debated. The Xbox Showcase was so sensational in terms of quantity and quality of announcements to have literally made the competition blush, with the State of Play now appearing like a sort of village festival compared to a Pink Floyd concert and the Summer Game Fest which thrives on Geoff Keighley’s smiles more than the games presented. Honestly, I don’t feel like mincing words or making a distinction, because it would be hypocritical and would simply go against the reality of the facts: if there hadn’t been the Xbox Showcase it would have been a disaster.
Summer on you
It’s the strange paradox of the current videogame market: Xbox sells fewer consoles, fewer games, closes studios and then presents itself with a ton of first party titles for the next few months and years, where PlayStation, which has fired a lot in turn, will have a chasm of first party releases, with the aggravating circumstance that we are about halfway through the generation and this was the moment to reveal the best than what has been produced in recent years. Evidently something in Sony’s planning must not have worked as it should.
The Summer Game Fest was supposed to give a general overview of the releases of the various publishers over the course of the year and instead it was a minor event, to be kind, between patches, subdued announcements and few surprises. The only thing it has reflected is the current crisis of the traditional market, which if we want it makes sense.
Nintendo of its own is waiting to play the first cards of its new console, in addition to the console itself. In fact, Mario’s house is justified because the Nintendo Switch is at the end of the generation and doesn’t have to prove anything, considering that he certainly can’t concentrate his production efforts on outgoing hardware. So even if he doesn’t present anything, no one will notice, unless you do not reveal Nintendo Switch 2 or Super Nintendo Switch whatever you want to say.
The other summer events were really not very indicative. I honestly don’t understand what the point of these is series of dozens and dozens of trailers that are forgotten a few seconds after they appear on the screen. Furthermore, many titles feature similar mechanics, which have exactly the opposite effect to the desired one. How to get interested in the tenth survival or twentieth RPG farm where you have to plant cucumbers? How effective can the fifteenth roguelike or the tenth metroidvania be?
We’re not saying they’re bad games. Indeed, perhaps among those there are hits like Animal Well, Palworld or Manor Lords. Except that presented like this doesn’t make any sense. Many are games that are not suitable for trade show trailers and that do better with a demo or preview. Seeing them in such mixes anonymizes them, making them disappear in the general flow, where perhaps examined in more detail they could shine. It’s true that indies struggle to find exposure for themselves, but this is not the solution.
In short, the new structure of summer presentations seems to be leaking on all sides, where it is unable to manage the quantity and quality of the proposals, with only one event that has been saved from mediocrity. A little bit, honestly.
This is an editorial written by a member of the editorial team and is not necessarily representative of the editorial line of Multiplayer.it.
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