Video game marketing departments deserve a slow clap. At first I didn't quite understand this whole "conference before the conferences," thing. I dismissed it as classic vanity, one company realizes they don't have to share the stage with anyone else so they all follow suit.
But I recently attained the Shyamalan moment in that there was a brilliant twist embedded in a metric fuckton of questionable choices. The surprise was Machiavellian in its simplicity. And dare I say the fix is as justifiable as it is evil.
The buzz about Xbox infinity, only to have it actually be named Xbox one? Some sacrificial douche flippantly pointing toward the Xbox having to always be online then being torn to bits by internet lynch mob, only to have it revealed that the system will have to "Check in" every 24 hours? It's a dance, it's scripted.
Cozying up to digital delivery, Network, and major retail while simultaneously abandoning Indy development services and openly challenging used game retailers over the course of the last two years. All calculated steps. For independent developers, Gamelfly, and Redbox this reveal was the montage from Good fellas where they clean up after the big robbery. And GameStop is Tommy DeVito getting made.
Fanboys played the part perfectly, reaching critical mass, doing nothing about it, then forgetting anything happened right in time for the next tumbler to fall into place. The death and taxes of video games are the outrage of our hardcore user base and their mayfly memories.
Video game marketing and PR are learning lessons from boring metric and business centric presentations of the past. They are splitting the message. Remember Sim City always on DRM? Nope? Ok, moving on.
It's them, its always been them. They have the internet downloaded, they are getting really, really good at this. And here is the twist. All of the boring stuff is now out of the way, people have had the chance to be angry, have seen all of the funny .gifs and done all of the foot stamping they are going to do. So now during convention season all any of the companies have to do to look like golden gods is to present the vox populi games.
Which conveniently are the only cards left to play. Que rousing applause.
Anyway, I'm not mad at them. We are struggling as an industry, the real enemy are at the gates and have taken the form of non gaming platforms that smell money in the water. We desperately need new business models to attain financial solvency. Or whatever. These people are doing their jobs.
Besides, all most people do on that system is watch Netflix anyway, and consoles are just... you know what I wont even start. It will be ok true believers. Just wait till you see what they want you to play. It's actually pretty cool.
Hope information gets certified to sell used. This Week in Gaming, yeah, I dunno. I hope everything is ok. But well, there are JERBZ!
The Protoculture Mixtape v.162 Issue : People : Longcon
