The expectations for Bethesda’s E3 conference weren’t very high. Everyone knew they would talk about titles like Fallout 76 and Elder Scrolls Blades, and these are viable games but to the general public, they’re already way past these games. What ensued during this presentation was an onslaught of mobile games and first-person shooters. There were definitely other things sprinkled in, but these two genres felt like they greatly overshadowed everything else. I thought this made the conference incredibly uninteresting.
If you enjoy mobile games, that’s totally fine, play anything you want, no one should give you a hard time. But the E3 stage just doesn’t feel like the right place for these kinds of games. It makes sense that developers want to make use of the large audience and showcase their games. It can help with audience perception since mobile gaming is still not well-seen by some gamers. However, the majority of people who tune in and/or go to E3 are not casual gamers. They are gamers who are looking for meaty, full-fledged games and so there was a disconnect.
When I tune in for E3, I’m looking forward to surprises, seeing the game franchises I love and new and exciting games; not something I might consider playing on the toilet for 5 minutes. Save these types of mobile game announcements for any other day where you could just release a trailer on social media, not for a day where hundreds of thousands of other people are readily excited for other games. I really, really don’t need to waste my time watching a cinematic trailer for a mobile game where I don’t get to see any gameplay. I very much understand it from a business point of view for these developers, but as a consumer, I instantly zone out during these announcements and I forget about them the next day without even a consideration of downloading.
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