Are Game Showcase Expectations Too High?

At last week’s Summer Game Fest 2023 Live, we saw dozens of games from a variety of developers. Nicholas Cage showed up, we had a long-awaited Final Fantasy VII Rebirth update, and even a release date for Spider-Man 2. Still, the response online was aggressively negative. At best, there was a collective sense of being underwhelmed. Are game showcases getting worse or do we not know how to set our expectations anymore? I’d say there’s a little bit of both.

For starters, we can’t deny that two things impact game development in 2023. Firstly, the more recent hurdle of development operations shifting and being delayed altogether in the wake of COVID-19 is still having an impact. We’re seeing residual effects from studios moving to remote operations, budgets at publishers changing, and even teams moving to different studios that fit their post-pandemic lifestyle a bit better.

The longer-term impact that we’re starting to realize, exemplified by COVID-19’s development delays, is that it’s incredibly difficult to make a game in 2023. Indie titles alone could take years to develop. AAA games, on the other hand, may see decades of work take place before a launch. So, what does that have to do with the Summer Game Fest 2023 Live event? It’s becoming clear that showcases will rely less on new announcements and more on updates to ongoing projects.

Likewise, announcements of live service games, free MMOs, and content updates for existing FTP games are not going to get the same reaction as a brand-new IP from a studio like EA or Ubisoft. As financial trends have shown, these are the games that make publishers the big bucks. They’re going to strive to make money, which means we will see copycats of everything from Splatoon to PUBG for decades moving forward because there’s money to be made and big corporations know that.

As more companies have been acquired by larger corporations, the people at the top are also less driven by a love for the medium and more by profits. That’s not unique to the entertainment industry, but it’s something we’re not used to seeing so much in the games industry. As a fringe entertainment medium untouched by the likes of entertainment conglomerates, the people running executive-level operations of a game studio tended to be a bit more invested in the games themselves. That’s not the case anymore.

For what it’s worth, I thought that Summer Game Fest 2023 Live was a well-balanced presentation. Still, it’s hard for gamers over 25 to not mourn the gravitas of E3 and massive showcases that fell in a magical week-span of news and announcements we’d talk about for weeks to follow. It’s important that the gaming community continues to express feedback on the types of games that will resonate with them. That said, we’re probably looking at the new normal for how studios announce and plan their newest releases.