It's June, and that means gaming and tech journalists will descend upon Los Angeles once again for E3, the Electronic Entertainment Expo. It's the biggest video game trade show in America, and the big players in the industry will be showing off their upcoming games and hardware.
So why isn't it more exciting?
Flash back to a year ago, and the Web was full of buzz surrounding E3. Nintendo was going to announce its new game system, Sony was going to announce the final details about its new handheld, and big titles like Bioshock Infinite, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, and Mega Man Legends 3 were hyped.
Little of that excitement is present for this year's E3. The Wii U is announced and the PlayStation Vita came out. Bioshock Infinite was pushed back to 2013, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword was released last November, and Mega Man Legends 3 was cancelled (with no new Mega Man games on the horizon). It feels like we're stuck waiting, with nothing exciting on the horizon. Many gamers might find their own interests satisfied with certain games and genres (I'm very excited about Atlus's upcoming Shin Megami Tensei games), but there's no really big buzz for the show this year.
The main problem is the lack of anchor announcements. The Wii U was big news at E3 last year and Nintendo will announce more details at its press conference next week, but it won't be "new." Nintendo's first party- and franchise-heavy emphasis on games also means any new titles for the Wii U will likely be unsurprising. It's going to get a Mario game. It's going to eventually get a Zelda game. It'll probably get a Kirby game. It might get a Metroid game, and we can only hope it will be better than Other M. We've been teased with games like Ninja Gaiden 3 and Darksiders 2 on the system, but they're just ports of current-gen games already on or heading to the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.
Speaking of the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, those two systems are going to stay in the market for at least another two years. Neither company is showing interest in replacing the consoles any time soon, and while they're likely working on future game systems, they each have reasons to quash hype about next-gen hardware at E3. Sony just released the PlayStation Vita, and it needs to keep attention focused on the new handheld. Microsoft is still promoting Kinect and adding features to Xbox Live, and it needs to keep attention focused on its services. We might see a teaser of future hardware, like a mysterious logo or the silhouette of a console design that hasn't been finalized, but there won't be major announcements because neither company wants them this year.
The few big name games on the way that we haven't seen before are all sequels or regular franchise games. Halo 4 and God of War: Ascension are both the next games in their respective trilogies that effectively wrapped up a few years ago. Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 is a sequel to Call of Duty, a sequel to Black Ops, and yet another sequel in a series that has become as annual and standard as Madden NFL games. Promising titles like X-Com: Enemy Unknown have been postponed, and are appealing only to genre and classic game fans.
This is the chance for independent game developers and small publishers to get some attention. While the big names are tied up in future projects or going through a lull, we could see some new non-AAA games get traction and attention. CD Projekt's new, unnamed cyberpunk RPG could get the attention it needs. Runic Games could stir up attention for its upcoming Torchlight 2 game in the wake of Diablo 3's release. Amplitude Studios could get eyes on Endless Space, its sci-fi 4X strategy game that hopes to recapture the magic found in games like Master of Orion and Galactic Civilizations. VBlank Entertainment's long-awaited Retro City Rampage could get its final push for attention before its anticipated release later this year. There's a big void of hype left by the big names in gaming, and this is the chance for smaller companies to grab some.
