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EA's Peter Moore: 'I'm not sure video game press conferences have a future.'
- Thread starter mocoworm
- Start date
gundamkyoukai
Member
I expect that E3 will be the only trade show that still have conferences.
Sony already start having there own events .
They still have a future just not at trade shows .
Agree, I'm not sure how they keep getting it so wrong. It's like you can actually see the wide gulf of disconnect between the people that play the games, and the people that fund making them.
All beside Sony. Their last two have been pretty great and kept the PR drivel segments to a minimum. And Sony's last E3 with Bear McCreary and the orchestra and just game after game after game was fucking incredible.
Nobody needs some executive standing up there and telling us "make the world a better place" kind of crap we hear.
Napalm_Frank
Member
If someone ''blows you out of the water'' then maybe you ought to try harder or it's basically just admitting that you cannot compete in this space. That doesn't exactly look well from consumer perspective.
Let's say MS quit doing any events at E3 and just held their own thing in January or something. Sure, no competition but that would make Sony look much better as the guy who stick to E3 and kept doing great conferences at the biggest event of the industry.
The Albatross
Member
This argument is following the same trend of the digital vs. physical media argument. Game enthusiasts can't imagine a world where the game industry follows trends of every other industry, and they're so resistant to obvious changes in the industry (and other industries).
"No! E3 will always be important, it will never go away!"
"No! E3 will always be important, it will never go away!"
Triggerhappytel
Member
I'm sure it'll have lots of concept art and devs talking about how excited they are to work on such a franchise.
LordBaztion
Member
With only star wars games in the horizon, I wouldn't mind EA not having conferences in a while.
QuantumBro
Banned
I don't know why EA always goes first at e3, they lose by default every year.
Since Andrew Wilson took over EA, I can't remember them ever having a conference that wasn't a pile of shit.
Everybody gets excited for press conferences, and that is their sole purpose - to generate excitement, so they will continue.
EA's wont, because, simply put, they're shit and don't generate even a fart, not to mind excitement.
Everybody gets excited for press conferences, and that is their sole purpose - to generate excitement, so they will continue.
EA's wont, because, simply put, they're shit and don't generate even a fart, not to mind excitement.
I don't think they have a future, either, at least not for game publishers
Press conferences are expensive.
For Sony and Microsoft, they make sense. They can't hype people up about hardware effectively without games.
But for EA, Activision, Ubisoft, etc., they just don't really make sense. Does having an Ubisoft press conference where they announce a bunch of games that are more than a year away do anything? Does it improve their bottom line at all? And more importantly, does it perform better than just a plain old YouTube trailer?
From a pure cost/benefit analysis, posting a trailer on YouTube for a game likely outweighs any press conference.
Press conferences are expensive.
For Sony and Microsoft, they make sense. They can't hype people up about hardware effectively without games.
But for EA, Activision, Ubisoft, etc., they just don't really make sense. Does having an Ubisoft press conference where they announce a bunch of games that are more than a year away do anything? Does it improve their bottom line at all? And more importantly, does it perform better than just a plain old YouTube trailer?
From a pure cost/benefit analysis, posting a trailer on YouTube for a game likely outweighs any press conference.
Complicated
Banned
Scripted and produced streams like Nintendo Direct are much better and more efficient than press conferences. You get to see the games without having to do the investor PR tone that every press conference is required to use. The company can control their message and avoid technical difficulties.
From the company that was voted worst in America for multiple years in a row, doesn't make hardware, releases the same games in the same franchises year after year after year, has had multiple press conferences where their presentations consisted of PowerPoint slides and jpegs of games that have yet to release, and has next to no chance in the PC marketplace. I'm not saying he's wrong, just that the company he works for isn't in the best position to be associated with the future of gaming and gaming events.
I think press conferences have, thanks to the theater initiative from Sony, evolved into fan and customer conferences. There will absolutely be a time when having a dedicated press conference makes as much sense as having a national day of celebration for Methamphetamines. I don't think that time is now. A lot of the press folks still need to feel like they matter, so it wouldn't benefit a company like Sony to just cut them out of the loop. You've gotta please these folks now to ease these folks out.
Slightly off-topic, but is it just me or is most of the "press conferences are dead everything is online bro" mantra coming from people who are much older than the actual audience of online gamers/users? Old men trying to convince the world that they're hip with all of this online streaming and live digital events and engagement and hashtag stuff is, in one word, weird. It would be like a swell of teenagers preaching about sailing/cigar lounges/Rolex collections/top hat management. It's just off.
I think press conferences have, thanks to the theater initiative from Sony, evolved into fan and customer conferences. There will absolutely be a time when having a dedicated press conference makes as much sense as having a national day of celebration for Methamphetamines. I don't think that time is now. A lot of the press folks still need to feel like they matter, so it wouldn't benefit a company like Sony to just cut them out of the loop. You've gotta please these folks now to ease these folks out.
Slightly off-topic, but is it just me or is most of the "press conferences are dead everything is online bro" mantra coming from people who are much older than the actual audience of online gamers/users? Old men trying to convince the world that they're hip with all of this online streaming and live digital events and engagement and hashtag stuff is, in one word, weird. It would be like a swell of teenagers preaching about sailing/cigar lounges/Rolex collections/top hat management. It's just off.
The problem is their conferences are shit, so they might be going away. If their conferences were great and going away, people would be disappointed. On top of that, they, and other publishers aren't really doing anything to go away from this traditional marketing model.
But the same could be said for the Film Industry - why have the Oscars when you could post a press release with the winners?
It's spectacle pure and simple.
And for people saying its getting too expensive to hold a damn conference, maybe the publishers can take some funds from the gigantic amount of DLC, Season Passes, Microtransactions galore they have poured into extracting every penny from their consumers and give something back in the form of a decent show.
Darklor01
Might need to stop sniffing glue
People love to be at an event. People love hands on. Some people love to see reaction of crowd to the parts of the event.
Show shit content and your part isn't viewed favorably. Show nothing but boring stuff and people are bored. How is that a call for not having these in the future in general? Have a great event, you'll want to have more great events. News at 11.
Show shit content and your part isn't viewed favorably. Show nothing but boring stuff and people are bored. How is that a call for not having these in the future in general? Have a great event, you'll want to have more great events. News at 11.
MetalGearZed
Member
My exact thoughts.
Who cares about EA's press conferences anyway? They are so damn predictable, Fifa, Madden, Golf/Hockey, Star Wars, Battlefield/Titanfall and then sprinkle it with perhaps an indie game and some awkward and way too long conversation with a youtube celebrity, sports star or actor. Just release some trailers to youtube and be done with it.
But hey I get it, when you start failing or are bad at something, just say it dosn't have a future. Wish I could tell my bank mortgages didn't have a future.
But hey I get it, when you start failing or are bad at something, just say it dosn't have a future. Wish I could tell my bank mortgages didn't have a future.
Lifejumper
Member
Nailed it.
Maybe I'm just getting older, but I don't think he's wrong. It's been a long while since I enjoyed any press conference, in this day and age, I think it's much better to release a few trailers, cutting away the awkwardness of corporate spokesmen presenting in front of a paid audience.
The last press conference I looked forward to was the PS4 announcement in February, 2013., but mostly because I was really tired of the PS360 gen at the time.
The last press conference I looked forward to was the PS4 announcement in February, 2013., but mostly because I was really tired of the PS360 gen at the time.
randomengine
Banned
Nintendo was right all along.
Mass_Pincup
Banned
They don't have a future because the one you're doing are shit.
-Yearly franchise which are making people feeling like they're watching last year's conference
-A serious lack of new content. Mass Effect Andromeda and Star Wars appearance in the conference were dreadful and simply couldn't please people.
-Weird guest star: Pele? Really?
For the most part Sony and a little less Microsoft and Ubisoft got it right, some gameplay footage, some new announcement and a little bit of "Big Franchise we kind of have to do even though we know it might not be interesting for the audience".
-Yearly franchise which are making people feeling like they're watching last year's conference
-A serious lack of new content. Mass Effect Andromeda and Star Wars appearance in the conference were dreadful and simply couldn't please people.
-Weird guest star: Pele? Really?
For the most part Sony and a little less Microsoft and Ubisoft got it right, some gameplay footage, some new announcement and a little bit of "Big Franchise we kind of have to do even though we know it might not be interesting for the audience".
The Albatross
Member
Award shows and trade shows are different, one is a look back on the last year of movies where tradeshows are typically a look into the next year of that industry, but you're totally spot on with the movie industry.
The movie industry largely doesn't have trade shows for upcoming movies, at least not to the degree of CES, E3, the Detroit Auto Show, and the hundreds of other industry tradeshows that have been on the decline for a decade. While some movie trailers are saved for a big award show (maybe a 3 or 4 movies a year), the overwhelming majority, somewhere north of 99%, are shown online, on TV, or before other movies at the movie theater. Very few movies are revealed at a trade show, so I think the movie industry is an example of one that never had this trade show format.
Don't get me wrong, I'll miss E3 and the big tradeshows when they truly become irrelevant, but it's just a fact that they're becoming less and less important. For what it's worth, I miss E3 from what it was 10 years ago. E3 used to be a true week long spectacular of new games, devices, and industry news. Today, we know almost all of the games that are being shown and after the first day of E3, there's really nothing for the rest of the week. The MS and Sony shows are high quality and mostly great, and then everything else is garbage or something we already know. Truly big-time spectacular games usually aren't even revealed at E3... The next RDR is not going to be revealed at E3, the next Half-Life will not be revealed at E3, the next GTA Will not be revealed at E3, the next Mario, etc., etc.
I don't even think PEter Moore is talking only about the future, he's talking about the present. Anybody who remembers E3 from the 90s and early-mid 2000s and then looks at today's E3 will feel nostalgic for those older shows.
Heck, I think we could even ask if tradeshows are even good for games. In the last few years, we've had a couple major game announcements at tradeshows... No Man's Sky reveal was awesome and left people with dropped jaws, but then it ended up setting up the game for such a major blowback because the pressure to wow the E3 crowd forced the team to make statements about the game that probably weren't possible. The announcement of Shenmue 3 broke NeoGaf, but here were are 2 and a half years later and we've seen almost nothing since that original megaton announcement. Games have been announced with aggressive release dates and amazing trailers intended to wow a tradeshow/E3 audience, only to push the release date back and then downgrade those graphics to something achievable. The interest in winning E3 makes publishers and developers do things that ultimately only satiate fanboys and then mislead the general gaming consumer public.
Thinking about it, what we see are tradeshows like E3 ends up causing a lot of the consternation that we have towards developers. Maybe we shouldn't even want tradeshows to begin with.
Yep, this is exactly right.
JigglesBunny
Banned
Sony found the perfect formula for a 'conference' at E3 this year. That format should be the standard.
EA's Madden/FIFA presentation doesn't have a future. That shit is stale and nobody is interested.
EA's Madden/FIFA presentation doesn't have a future. That shit is stale and nobody is interested.
MegaSackman
Member
SlimySnake
Flashless at the Golden Globes
LOL he says that after Sony has killed the competition in their last two successful E3 conferences.
This is typical corporate exec misreading a situation. they focus on the wrong things and then come at the completely wrong conclusion on why they got it wrong. Just look at what Sony has been doing these past two years. Conference after conference. Nothing but games. Even their smaller conferences like PSX and Paris games show have been nothing but games and have received great response from the gaming crowd.
You are in the video games business Peter, stop pushing leagues, stop pushing celebrities and focus on showing off your mother fucking games. Dont insult them by showing five seconds of footage from Mass Effect.
This is typical corporate exec misreading a situation. they focus on the wrong things and then come at the completely wrong conclusion on why they got it wrong. Just look at what Sony has been doing these past two years. Conference after conference. Nothing but games. Even their smaller conferences like PSX and Paris games show have been nothing but games and have received great response from the gaming crowd.
You are in the video games business Peter, stop pushing leagues, stop pushing celebrities and focus on showing off your mother fucking games. Dont insult them by showing five seconds of footage from Mass Effect.
gundamkyoukai
Member
But that would have not gotten the same amount of hype and marketing .
People all over social media \ press was talking about Sony because they used a live orchestra.
Which in turn helps the brand , hardware makers have much more to gain with conferences than pubs .
CassidyIzABeast
Member
Save on the stage costs and just live stream a bunch of trailers and demos.
DigitalRicket
Member
I see them still doing them but at their own events with their fans in the audience, much like the PS Experience. The need for companies to put on expensive conferences for the press... well, those days are done. They aren't required anymore.
GwyndolinCinder
Member
But i bet he is 100% positive "behind the scenes concept art" conferences have no future.
The Albatross
Member
Nobody outside of enthusiast websites like Neogaf cared that Sony had a live orchestra. It was an interesting footnote and a neat concept that fans of Sony thought was neat. Otherwise, it was largely forgotten.
Are you thinking that if EA -- who had a terrible show -- had a live orchestra playing the Madden sound track that would have changed people's minds about EA's presser? I don't think so.
It's true that hardware makers stand a lot more to gain because press conferences like E3 are devices for hardware makers to force software producers to tell the hardware maker's story. Developers rush, over-work their employees, and pull sleepless nights in order to put together a misleading trailer that they hand to Sony or Microsoft, who hit play on a video, and then sit back and wait for fanboys to proclaim Sony or Microsoft "the winners" or E3.
While I love the excitement of E3, I don't think its a good thing for the industry anymore, and it's definitely not a good thing for most developers (which is why most developers are distancing themselves from E3, not flocking to it anymore).
Why put movies in theaters or on discs when people could just stream them?
Because one size does not fit all. Something the all digital future cheerleaders can never get their heads around.
You're confusing your personal opinion with that of the console gaming market as a whole.
Acquiescence
Member
What? Try a year and three months.
gundamkyoukai
Member
I am not talking about E3 i am talking about conferences .
Also it was not only gaf that was talking about the orchestra it was the press ,blogs etc etc .
Also having a good conference is part of marketing .
Sony this gen has use there conferences as great marketing tool .
Petrae
Member
If companies wish to continue being extravagant and throw money away, that's fine-- but press conferences really aren't needed in this connected, video-on-demand age. It's far cheaper to put together a video presentation, showing off games (with commentary from developers as desired) and wrapping it in a streamlined, no-nonsense show.
I can kind of see why Sony & MS still do it, but it's unnecessary. Hands-on is important, and can be done at a venue or a small tour of venues, but trailers and/or gameplay demos can just as easily be packaged into a streaming video. Smaller budget, less boring corporate speak, problems with demos edited out.
I can kind of see why Sony & MS still do it, but it's unnecessary. Hands-on is important, and can be done at a venue or a small tour of venues, but trailers and/or gameplay demos can just as easily be packaged into a streaming video. Smaller budget, less boring corporate speak, problems with demos edited out.
Napalm_Frank
Member
2 months*
Some Nobody
Junior Member
Did anyone read the interview? I did, and woof. You guys are arguing about fucking nothing. Peter Moore was trying to down Eurogamer for telling people to log off. Like he didn't get why the excitement wasn't there for livestreams.
EA's sales are fine, they put up some of the biggest/best numbers, but their core fanbase don't necessarily care about stuff like this. I've got tons of family who never stopped playing Madden, but you think they give a shit you're streaming it at gamescom? Or anywhere, for that mattter?
This feels more like spin because they know their big games arent marketed solely towards the core gamer fanbase. Do we buy them? Of course, but a person on GAF or who lived on IGN/EG/Gematsu isn't as likely to look at BF1 or Madden as the only game they want this year.
And fwiw, I'm bummed about conferences going away...but only because I dont like how they're being replaced. If we got more demos of games, got to play the vertical slices, I'd be fine. But it can't work that way because some games are in absolute disarray before official launch and they can't risk the awful PR.
EA's sales are fine, they put up some of the biggest/best numbers, but their core fanbase don't necessarily care about stuff like this. I've got tons of family who never stopped playing Madden, but you think they give a shit you're streaming it at gamescom? Or anywhere, for that mattter?
This feels more like spin because they know their big games arent marketed solely towards the core gamer fanbase. Do we buy them? Of course, but a person on GAF or who lived on IGN/EG/Gematsu isn't as likely to look at BF1 or Madden as the only game they want this year.
And fwiw, I'm bummed about conferences going away...but only because I dont like how they're being replaced. If we got more demos of games, got to play the vertical slices, I'd be fine. But it can't work that way because some games are in absolute disarray before official launch and they can't risk the awful PR.
Salty Rice
Member
If you have always no games to show and just Pele sitting there then i agree that EA conferences have no future.
I'm assuming you have figures to back this up?
AHA-Lambda
Member
This. They're consistently terrible.
Sony's conference this year is the pinnacle of how to do these events.
That is the future and I would be thrilled if every publisher and platform holder followed that format to a tee.
EA has potential to do a great event - its just FIFA and the like should be just another trailer in the playlist of awesome things rather than a convoluted 10 minute segment with cringeworthy scripted talk with celebrities where anyone watching is using that time to take a piss.
There wasn't even a minute I moved from the Sony E3 stream because it was just shot after shot and if anybody from these companies are reading these comments, scrap everything and just take this format.
You'll get the great buzz at a far cheaper price.