News
E3 2014 After Thoughts
Cordova, TN; June 27, in the year of our Lord 2014--Family
Friendly Gaming, the industry leader in covering the family
friendly video games is going over the E3 2014 experiences and
sharing some after thoughts. Think of it as a summation of the
event after some sleep, prayer, meditation, and reflection.
Notes were taken throughout the event for this very article. How
does E3 2014 rate compared to past years? What was it like going
in person again? How does in person compare to covering the
event from Memphis? How did the team handle it?
From the top E3 2014 was one of the worst E3’s Family Friendly
Gaming has ever covered. Too many of the family friendly gaming
companies were not in attendance. There were no games for kids.
The industry has completely forgotten children. The macabre and
morbid games were boring us at every single corner. Long lines
were everywhere to play just about everything - unless you had
an appointment. Which the Family Friendly Gaming team had
because we like to plan in advance. Hateful profanity was being
spewed all over the place. Anger was high among many of the E3
2014 attendees. It seems too many in the gaming media are acting
like characters in the games they play.
The disorganization of how E3 2014 was set up was horrible.
Massive long lines to get into the show when it opened. Waiting
an hour outside was common place just to be the one thousandth
person to enter. Which made us late to our first appointment
every single day of attendance. The food provided to the media
gave us some kind of nasty stomach bug/food poisoning that made
us sick the rest of the day. And we were not the only ones who
got sick from their food. Quite a few others were in distress
thanks to the poor hygiene. Some companies lost records and had
to be shown email confirmation of meetings. Others working there
had no clue where anything was in their own floor space.
Bouncing back and forth between two different press check in
booths was common place at both Sony and Microsoft’s areas. We
eventually gave up on those meetings. We were not being paid to
deal with such poor treatment.
The LA Metro worked masterfully well. The Wifi at the Los
Angeles Convention Center for the media actually worked just
fine. This was the first year it ever worked fine. The hotel
Wifi was also really good. The problems with the room made
sleeping difficult, but it was only for a few days. The Press
Events for Microsoft, EA, Ubisoft, and Sony were horrible. A
game or two for families. Talk about making us feel like we
wasted a ton of money for no reason. Sony had great food again.
Ubisoft and Microsoft had some neat light up wrist bands for
their press conferences. Swag was miserable this year. Only an
item or two worth mentioning. A dog from Natsume, a Disney
Infinity 2.0 character, and a light force trap for Skylanders
Trap Team. Those last two may not actually work with the final
retail products though. A lot of money was spent to be given a
few knick knacks.
Networking was miserable this year. In fact only a couple of
meaningful connections were made at E3 2014. The exhausting part
was every single company wants us to spend all these hours
promoting their products. They want us to spend all this money
to make their products sell. When they reach massive sales, they
never bother to financially thank us for all of our hard work.
You know what they end up doing? They ask us for more work. Only
a couple of places thanked us verbally for all we have done for
them. Disney Interactive Studios was one of them - and that
really stuck out. We should have asked for some advertisements
from Disney Interactive Studios but it slipped my mind.
Most places processed us through as quickly as possible. It was:
“next please.” We were provided very little time with any of the
games at E3 2014. Even if you stood around until your feet hurt,
you might not get in to see something. Behind closed doors
meetings where much better. EA Sports had a nice section devoted
to their sports games. That was impressive. The most impressive
was Bandai Namco. They had more games for families per floor
space than anyone else at E3 2014. They are providing for
families this Christmas. Sony is finally starting to provide for
families on the PS4 with LittleBigPlanet 3. Microsoft is banking
on Forza Horizon 2, and upgrades to Project Spark coming out on
the Xbox One. Nintendo is all obsessed with Super Smash Bros
this Christmas. Too many of the Nintendo games are coming out in
2015.
Lots of sequels are coming out this Christmas buying season. In
fact I almost predicted every single game Ubisoft announced
before they showed it. It was sad that I knew it was this
sequel, and that sequel. What will Just Dance 2015 bring us?
Will Shape Up be widely accepted by families? Indie developers
had some interesting ideas here and there. Ultimately not
everyone can make a game. Even if that is goal of some
companies. If everyone makes games, no one will be left to buy
them. That may be what bursts the indie developer bubble. OUYA
was generally seen as a joke at E3 2014. Which is a shame
because they are trying really hard. The entire video game
industry contraction could be seen at E3 2014 as well. I am
looking forward to covering E3 2015, and E3 2016 from Memphis.
God bless,
Paul Bury
Family Friendly Gaming