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Someone calculated the % of "game shown" vs "talking" at the last E3

Wait, what?

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Oh. Got it.

Give em a break. Brand loyalty is a powerful drug.

No you don't get it at all and brand loyalty isn't a powerful drug.

At the E3 conference i want the executives and developers to talk some time. Learn about their business and vision going forward. That's what a show is for
Just long Gameplay trailer?
I can get that on YouTube just fine, or you can make a direct like Nintendo.


Hard to believe people have different tastes, isn't it?
 

JaffeLion

Banned
I'd say one if the main reasons MS wasn't higher was that the announced the One S, Scorpio, that custom controller program, and backwards compatibility all during their E3 conference.

A lot more HW/system-level stuff than the average conference.

Probably about the same this year, considering how much people expect them to blow out Scorpio.

yeah, which is not a bad thing, iMHO. especially the BC announcement was EPIC.
 

TsuWave

Member
No you don't get it at all and brand loyalty isn't a powerful drug.

At the E3 conference i want the executives and developers to talk some time. Learn about their business and vision going forward. That's what a show is for
Just long Gameplay trailer?
I can get that on YouTube just fine, or you can make a direct like Nintendo.


Hard to believe people have different tastes, isn't it?

you should be able to deliver business updates and vision going forward within 15-20 minutes

"too many games" or "too much time spent showing games" is just a bizarre stance, imo
 

fantomena

Member
No you don't get it at all and brand loyalty isn't a powerful drug.

At the E3 conference i want the executives and developers to talk some time. Learn about their business and vision going forward. That's what a show is for
Just long Gameplay trailer?
I can get that on YouTube just fine, or you can make a direct like Nintendo.


Hard to believe people have different tastes, isn't it?

Well, for me, Im watching E3 to watch games, not listen to people talk. I buy video game consoles to play games on them. The more talk, the worse it get's for me.

Btw, Layden said there would be 90 secs of talking, so I hope he keeps his promise cause I just want games, games, games. Fuck talking.

Less time to talk = more time to show off the games

I don't want to hear minutes of buzzwords.
 

SargerusBR

I love Pokken!
Sony is on the sweet spot. Every conference should be like it.

EA has no real announcements this year besides Project Dylan and BF2 gameplay so expecting a lot of blah blah blah from them as usual.
 
The fact that 'how long was spent not showing games' is viewed as a negative in this thread is just another nail in the coffin for e3. Why spend all the time/money on an elaborate stage show when people only care about the minutes spent showing new games? Something you can easily just upload to youtube?

On the other hand, why would I care about anything other than games at a games exhibition?! Sales or hardware talk can be done in press statements or fiscal reports. By all means have a bit of music and a bit of talking presentation, but I think keeping this stuff minimal is best. Yes you can reduce trailers to "why not just use YouTube", but you can do the same with every aspect of E3 if you want to be so reductive. Personally I prefer more trailers and gameplay and less of anything else in E3 conferences.

I checked. It's ~16 minutes including the orchestra. No idea where the 23 minutes comes from.

5 minute orchestra, 3 mins opening talk, 3 mins RE7/VR, 1 min Crash, 2 mins House/Kojima, 2 mins closer. That's including walking on to the orchestra.

Yeah, I'm watching it now and noting down timings.

Talking is bad?

So I guess the Shenmue 3 and Final Fantasy VII remakes talking portions blew.

The Shenmue one I could understand because it was the long-awaited continuation of a beloved series, but it was very clear with FFVIIR that they had fuck all to show because it was intangible promises for something that didn't exist yet.
 

eerik9000

Member
Btw, Layden said there would be 90 secs of talking, so I hope he keeps his promise cause I just want games, games, games. Fuck talking.

Layden said there would be 90 seconds of him. There's room for Yoshida, House, Cerny, et al. though I would expect it to be about the same as last year.

Talking is bad?

So I guess the Shenmue 3 and Final Fantasy VII remakes talking portions blew.

Mostly yes. You are just cherry-picking some positive examples. Most of the talking is a la "I am Jose Mourinho and EA pays me a shitton of money to be here" or "Powers is good because I created the source material" or "Wow, Xbox Live achievements on an iPad, so crazy".

18zmoyztm8yh6gif.gif
 
Sony's got it right, imho.

65+% of pure games footage is what every conference should aspire to.

We wait an entire 12 months for E3 to come around every year, and the primary motivation to watch the conferences is to see the huge game reveals.

So for me, even half of the conference spent talking is too much.

The only exceptions I'd put in are (i) conferences containing hardware reveals and (ii) conferences hosted by Aisha Tyler (love Aisha -- cheers Ubisoft).
 
I think 60% would be the ultimate sweet spot. I started getting really fatigued during Sony's conference last year. It felt too much like a marathon. I didn't have enough time to process the trailer that had just finished before the next one started.

And with Bethesda, I had just slightly too many "okay just show the game" moments.
 
What's the point of EA even being there. When EA comes on, that's when I get up for a lunch break, waste of my time.

They are going alone on Saturday, guess I don't need to bother tuning in at all that day.
 

takriel

Member
No you don't get it at all and brand loyalty isn't a powerful drug.

At the E3 conference i want the executives and developers to talk some time. Learn about their business and vision going forward. That's what a show is for
Just long Gameplay trailer?
I can get that on YouTube just fine, or you can make a direct like Nintendo.


Hard to believe people have different tastes, isn't it?

Why would you want mostly PR people to speak about how awesome a game is, when in that same time they could just show you the game, let it speak for itself?

PR speech <<<<<< CG trailer <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< in-engine trailer <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< actual gameplay trailer
 
you should be able to deliver business updates and vision going forward within 15-20 minutes

"too many games" or "too much time spent showing games" is just a bizarre stance, imo

Well, for me, Im watching E3 to watch games, not listen to people talk. I buy video game consoles to play games on them. The more talk, the worse it get's for me.

Btw, Layden said there would be 90 secs of talking, so I hope he keeps his promise cause I just want games, games, games. Fuck talking.

Less time to talk = more time to show off the games

I don't want to hear minutes of buzzwords.

and 30% isn't enough?

Different tastes. All good.

But when i say "Sony is a little to much"
Some people maybe tend to exaggerate that into i don't want new games and gameplay shown. That's not the case. I want a balanced show. Hardware and platform stuff is also very important for me.

Sony last year was to less non gameplay content, yes. Could've easily shown the Slim and Pro.
I also liked when they talked about new sales figures. 1 minute talk about sales. 10 minutes section of hardware. 2 minutes less gameplay. 8 instead of 10 minutes for GoW and other games.
 

eerik9000

Member
Different tastes. All good.

But when i say "Sony is a little to much"
Some people maybe tend to exaggerate that into i don't want new games and gameplay shown. That's not the case. I want a balanced show. Hardware and platform stuff is also very important for me.

Sony last year was to less non gameplay content, yes. Could've easily shown the Slim and Pro.
I also liked when they talked about new sales figures. 1 minute talk about sales. 10 minutes section of hardware. 2 minutes less gameplay. 8 instead of 10 minutes for GoW and other games.

Sony had a separate hardware event in September where it was all talk and little gameplay. You must have loved that, right?
 
I also liked when they talked about new sales figures. 1 minute talk about sales. 10 minutes section of hardware. 2 minutes less gameplay. 8 instead of 10 minutes for GoW and other games.

Right here you're arguing the case for 80% gameplay vs. 20% talking, and yet you thought there was not enough talking at Sony's conference last year?!
 

Akai__

Member
Not in the slightest surprised with EA. Their last E3 conference had them switching back and forth between 2 continents and every time Peter Moore was on, they talked way too much about sports game, instead of showing them.

I honestly thought that Ubisoft would also be in the 20-30% range. Their iconic conferences are just an unbearable cringe festival every single time. Doesn't feel like they are showing much about games and I honestly can't remember what they even showed at last years E3 besides South Park, but that's probably because it was the only thing that I was interested in from them. Memmory works in a funny way.

lets make a meme!

Thanks for reminding me. I wanted to forget this.
 

Fat4all

Banned
Not in the slightest surprised with EA. Their last E3 conference had them switching back and forth between 2 continents and every time Peter Moore was on, they talked way too much about sports game, instead of showing them.

I honestly thought that Ubisoft would also be in the 20-30% range. Their iconic conferences are just an unbearable cringe festival every single time. Doesn't feel like they are showing much about games and I honestly can't remember what they even showed at last years E3 besides South Park, but that's probably because it was the only thing that I was interested in from them. Memmory works in a funny way.

lets make a meme!
 

UrbanRats

Member
Why would you want mostly PR people to speak about how awesome a game is, when in that same time they could just show you the game, let it speak for itself?

PR speech <<<<<< CG trailer <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< in-engine trailer <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< actual gameplay trailer

Maybe the game can't really speak for itself.
 

Petrae

Member
The fact that 'how long was spent not showing games' is viewed as a negative in this thread is just another nail in the coffin for e3. Why spend all the time/money on an elaborate stage show when people only care about the minutes spent showing new games? Something you can easily just upload to youtube?

It's one of the reasons that I'm glad Nintendo quit doing live E3 press events. Don't waste my time with fluff, stodgy suits, terrified developers, obviously scripted gameplay and "gamer chat", and pointless camera cutaways from a trailer to a crowd that I don't give a rat's ass about. Enough with bullshit like Screaming Bethesda Lady or High Zac Efron. A live orchestra? Please. Just for what we all want: more transitions. Oh, and don't forget the fun when live demos shit the bed on camera and waste everyone's time. That's always fun.

Show the trailers, film a short gameplay session for games ready for it, add some brief prepared statements/announcements. Splice and edit it into 30 minutes. Trim, lean, no frills. More meat, less bullshit.

It saves money while reaching an equally large-- if not larger-- audience.
 

MisterR

Member
you should be able to deliver business updates and vision going forward within 15-20 minutes

"too many games" or "too much time spent showing games" is just a bizarre stance, imo

It's Hanspampel. He's said before that he's not really interested in games he just cares about hardware and I guess the business side of games. Really weird.
 
I checked. It's ~16 minutes including the orchestra. No idea where the 23 minutes comes from.

5 minute orchestra, 3 mins opening talk, 3 mins RE7/VR, 1 min Crash, 2 mins House/Kojima, 2 mins closer. That's including walking on to the orchestra.

Like a bored, slightly insane pedant I've watched it all again and noted down times. I make it 10m21s talking and 4m16s for the orchestra for a total of 14m37s. Breakdown below:

DB4KujgXUAEWrQt.jpg


I would like to do this for all the conferences really, but I just don't have time. If I were employed by Easy Allies I'd gladly do shit like this full-time!

EDIT - based on this video from IGN. The conference on the official PS channel has loads of fluff beforehand so it was easier using this one.

EDIT 2 - worth noting that the beginning of the conference was the only time the orchestra played alone so I've not counted music elsewhere, and there were a few bits of 10 or 20 seconds downtime here and there, which I have accounted for as 'Other'.
 

MadMod

Member
I'm quite proud of myself, guessed them all right haha. I dont mind the talking as long as it isnt fluff. Love Sonys approach.
 

nynt9

Member
No you don't get it at all and brand loyalty isn't a powerful drug.

At the E3 conference i want the executives and developers to talk some time. Learn about their business and vision going forward. That's what a show is for
Just long Gameplay trailer?
I can get that on YouTube just fine, or you can make a direct like Nintendo.


Hard to believe people have different tastes, isn't it?

If I wanted a press release full of buzzwords spelled out to me, I'd just read a press release.
 

mckmas8808

Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
Everybody should strive to Sony's percentage IMO. Hoping it becomes the new standard.

I liked it too, but 70% is high. Give me 50% or higher and I'm good. I'm not a small attention span baby, so I can listen to humans talk for 2 minutes before seeing a trailer.
 
I liked it too, but 70% is high. Give me 50% or higher and I'm good. I'm not a small attention span baby, so I can listen to humans talk for 2 minutes before seeing a trailer.

Kind of my thought as well. Plus there are plenty of instances where I'm more happy to hear creators talk about their plans/what they're thinking than see a trailer, especially if something is more than a year out.
 
I think people who are against talking during these events are missing the big picture. I dunno, I like hearing a person talk about the vision of their company or a little story about their game. I feel like saying things like "they don't need to talk, we can read press releases or panels for that" is an oversimplification of a press conference in the same way that saying "if you just want trailer after trailer, just watch a playlist on YouTube" is.

It's a presentation, so the way information is presented is incredibly important. I don't expect anyone to want a press conference reduced to a simultaneous release of trailers on YouTube. People like the grandeur of a live showing of this content, which is why Nintendo often gets criticized for moving away from the live conference format. For some people, talking heads might just be another part of that experience for them, even if it has little to do with gameplay. The orchestra from Sony wasn't really needed to show off the games, but most people loved it because it added to the experience for them. I think there can be a healthy balance between non-gameplay and gameplay.
 

nynt9

Member
I think people who are against talking during these events are missing the big picture. I dunno, I like hearing a person talk about the vision of their company or a little story about their game. I feel like saying things like "they don't need to talk, we can read press releases or panels for that" is an oversimplification of a press conference in the same way that saying "if you just want trailer after trailer, just watch a playlist on YouTube" is.

It's a presentation, so the way information is presented is incredibly important. I don't expect anyone to want a press conference reduced to a simultaneous release of trailers on YouTube. People like the grandeur of a live showing of this content, which is why Nintendo often gets criticized for moving away from the live conference format. For some people, talking heads might just be another part of that experience for them, even if it has little to do with gameplay. The orchestra from Sony wasn't really needed to show off the games, but most people loved it because it added to the experience for them. I think there can be a healthy balance between non-gameplay and gameplay.

In theory this is sensible, but the talking usually amounts to "this is an unprecedented game where we broke all our boundaries. the protagonist is a white male who struggles with some angst. this game will blow your mind" over and over. Showing something instead of telling it is more effective. I'm not saying 0% talk. But 70% is a good ratio. For 10 minutes, you get 3 minutes of talk and 7 minutes to show the thing you're talking about. You can still talk over gameplay footage, you know.
 

ec0ec0

Member
still a garbage stadistic.

show the % of actual gameplay shown for each company. No speechs. No CGI. No "in-engine" trailers. No cutscenes.

Only count the time were there's actual gamelay on screen or, in other words, only count the video footage that is representative of what you're going to play when you buy the game (the camera should be the same that the one you're going to get, not some fancy camera angles, you should be able to see the character moving as you you will get to move him/her once you have the game, etc..)
 

GunBR

Member
In theory this is sensible, but the talking usually amounts to "this is an unprecedented game where we broke all our boundaries. the protagonist is a white male who struggles with some angst. this game will blow your mind" over and over. Showing something instead of telling it is more effective. I'm not saying 0% talk. But 70% is a good ratio. For 10 minutes, you get 3 minutes of talk and 7 minutes to show the thing you're talking about. You can still talk over gameplay footage, you know.
This

I love to see interviews with devs talking about their games, but in the conferences is always the same speech
 
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