E3 2013 Games Summary

The biggest E3 in a long time has come to a close and what a great event it was.  The PlayStation 4 and Xbox One presentations were definitely the most anticipated, but did you see all the new games coming out?  Even if there weren’t any new consoles coming out, the sheer volume and quality of new games shown during E3 would place this year’s showing as one of the best.  Obviously, most of these new and exciting titles are in development precisely because of the new consoles but there is certainly a lot to be excited about.

Something that I believe you will see over the coming years is a changing of the guard.  The previous five years or so have largely been iterative from a games perspective.  Most of the biggest games of last year were franchises that have been pumping out annual or close to annual sequels for a number of years now.  The games continue to sell because they continue to be fun . . . and because there hasn’t been a whole lot of quality new franchises.

We’ve now discovered that studios and publishers have been waiting for new hardware to take chances on new IP.  It makes sense from a business standpoint.  New consoles enable different types of games to be made and consumers should be more open into seeing what’s possible.

New properties like Titanfall, The Division, Watch Dogs, and of course Destiny look exciting, polished, and unique.  They could end up being absolutely huge.  Huge inevitably means lots of sequels and publishers are already counting on this.

Call of Duty, Battlefield, Assassin’s Creed, and many of the other staple franchises of the present are still fun to play – they just aren’t very exciting any more.  They will continue to sell well, but I think you will see a gradual decline over the coming years in sales for these old franchises.  This will be directly related to the success new properties like Destiny and The Division will have.

E3 2013 has also shown us what it could mean to be a next-next-gen game.  Better graphics and more realistic looking games?  Obviously.  What wasn’t entirely obvious a week ago is the new type of connected, hybrid game.  Instead of swapping games whenever you decide you want to play an RPG instead of a shooter, or go jump on your computer for an MMO, this next generation of games looks to combine the best elements of all these genres.

Destiny is one of the games to showcase this new hybrid model.  Core gameplay looks like any other shooter (well, make that a pretty amazing looking shooter) but when you dig deeper you find heavy RPG components, a strong loot system, and seamless transitioning between single and multiplayer experiences.  Only time will tell exactly where things are heading, but this year’s E3 showed us two things we can be sure about: change is coming and it’s a good time to be a gamer.