Hey, look, a click bait title! No, I haven’t sold out, I’ve got a point in this, which will (hopefully) make sense as you read. E3 2016 is over, and I, like so many other gamers, are looking over the fallout of it, as we do every year, to see what to make of the upcoming year and a half or so in gaming. The event really functions as a showcase for, well, everyone else in the gaming industry, but since gaming news agencies are present, they get to report on just what all has been announced, and companies use it as a way to say “Hey, look what we have! Buy our stuff!” which is fine, but the fans want to turn it into more than it is.
We have reached that point where the videos on YouTube are popping up all asking “Who won E3?” and if you can’t tell, that’s the subject of this post.
The E3 Logo, presented here to break text. Enjoy!
E3 isn’t a competition. Yes, the companies involved are in competition with one another, but as it stands, none of the big 3 are in any situation to fold anytime soon. Right now, things are healthy, and the gaming industry is thriving, but the fans… the fans are something else.
Everyone just loves going around claiming their platform of choice somehow “won” over the others. They somehow presented better, I guess? I mean, it isn’t like most of the announcements are even available yet. Far from it – some of the products shown won’t be available for over a year down the line, yet people argue that this or that means Sony or Microsoft or Nintendo won.
Call of Duty getting DLC 1st on the PS4 means Sony won, even though the game will be available on other consoles. Take that other people who can play the same game! /sarcasm
They didn’t. No one won. It’s not a damned competition. You are just looking for confirmation to your own personal bias. You own a PS4, so you will naturally say Sony “won” with their usual announcement of random games. Oh, you’re an Xbox One owner? Then you are going to say all the new Xbox and PC exclusives mean they won, right? Nintendo fan? Then of course the big N and their new Zelda game means they won out!
This is how it always is, with anything; tribal allegiance. Hell, even I’m guilty of it sometimes, but in most cases, it’s reactionary to someone else demonstrating their own extreme bias. See, I don’t, and never will, look at E3 as anything more than what it is – a trade show. A chance to show off what’s coming down the line. If people like it, cool. If not, then maybe resources should be deviated to a better product.
It isn’t a competition. Not like how people want to make it out to be. Stop acting like your favourite company has to “win” battles that were never even fought. Just buy the games you want, the hardware you want, have fun with it, and stop making fights out of everything.
Who won E3? No one. That simple.