My pet hate was always trailers not showing gameplay

30 Seconds of ambient sounds while some guy speaks the most generic words

5 seconds of some random gameplay footage that's not telling me much

The crowd goes wild(?)

Do you remember what E3 presentations used to be? Go back to 2006 and watch one straight through. Or even 2016. Lots of slides about how great the presenter's company was, live demos that didn't work; for about 2 hours that felt like 4, with far fewer games shown in the same amount of time as today. That's not to say this is objectively better, or that it's always good, but it's how we arrived here. Compared to 20 years ago, I also have so many different ways to cut advertisements out of my life entirely that this and the Game Awards are basically the only times I seek them out. And it's not just Geoff's show; take a look at the Steam "showcase of showcases" page, and you'll see all of the other little events tied around this time of year, too, often with demos available for us to play.

Back in the day, you were lucky to get box art and screenshots! 😉

But, yeah, I get it. So much of it is just plainly manufactured bullshit. You can't trust anything. Not at least since the Halo 2 debacle.

And even if it is real, there's no guarantee it won't change before release (cough - Watch Dogs - cough), get delayed forever, or just get outright cancelled and shelved.

I just can't stand marketers, and that's all these shows are now. I hate the artificial dialogue in the trailers, the fake views of the games, everything is "curated", and it feels so fake. Then also what's the point of getting hyped because a heavy double digit percentage will be minimum delayed, or even full-out cancelled (because hype is a metric now). I wait for game dev streams, at least sometimes you'll get a real dev who isn't "PR trained" talking about their game, and then you can get a realistic idea of how complete it actually is.

Satisfactory did it best in my opinion. True early access, they had minimum monthly videos showing the progress, they had a regular EA release cadence every 6 months, they actually engaged on Discord/Reddit/etc (You could literally @ them on the platforms and they'd respond, not just "join our discord" with a bunch of unanswered question with no actual company presence). Then when 1.0 actually released it was (I believe) CoffeeStains biggest and most anticipated release. It felt real, authentic, actual people making a game. Not a marketing team shilling.

Compared to what though? Game reveals have always been big CGI trailer and maybe some tease of gameplay. If anything this year was way better than the last few because they showed back-to-back trailers and not have someone talk on stage for 5 minutes after each one.

Unlike E3 this SGF is a Geoff cash grab

You have a very rose tinted view of E3.

Might I suggest game shows for indie games? Usually those don't have the budget to hide contents behind cinematic trailers, and usually they seem of a better quality than AAA games.

I really miss the E3 days but it's not hard to see why we've arrived here.

Also back in the day many if not most presentations were garbage. Half the fun was making fun of them with friends.

For us it's still an excuse to get everyone together and sometimes it even feels like the old days. Sometimes.

No point in watching the ad parade when 80% of the games are hat stores or GAAS slop and 90% of the remainder are remakes and remasters. The games worth your time and money are ones you'll hear about when they're released.

I recently showed a 60-something year old relative the two GTA6 trailers, while explaining my looking forward to trailer 3 and the game’s launch.

They remembered me playing Vice City back in the early 00s, so we watched its first two trailers also and let me tell you - for all of modern gaming’s faults - marketing has gotten a lot better in the intervening years.

You and me same, but i think for me i'm just jaded by the abundance amount of game and dev that i can't really keep up who is what anymore. Nothing is fresh if you ate too much of it over the year, and once your mind tell you "ehh, why bother" you will move on from these hype train. I used to sit through all these livestreamed event but nowadays i just scroll through them and watch what piqued my interest, or play the demo on steam. I think steam indie fest or whatever fest they have yearly stay true to the e3/pax spirit, with no time constraint, no lining up, and on your couch/pc desk. The lack of conversation with dev is not a deal breaker to me.

The Devolver "E3" presentation was always great. I think they stopped making them though.

Can't disagree more. Never been a better time to be a gamer. We're so spoiled for choice and every genre has so many games, there's bound to be something for everyone.

I think part of the issue is that there are simply so many games competing for attention now. Even good trailers can blend together after a while.

What usually gets me interested isn't the trailer itself....it's when I can quickly understand the game's core idea and what makes it different from everything else being shown.

i felt like xbox's showcase did a gretavjob of showing storybdriven gameplay

Me: People still watch game reveals from big events?

For over twenty years, I stopped paying attention to big gaming announcements from big events like E3. I just learned the hard truth that it's all marketing jazz and when the game is finally released, it is nothing like what was hyped up to be. I don't even remember what was the game that disappointed me so hard to make me give up looking up game reveals.

I just let the finished product and reviews speak for themselves to influence me on whether or not I will play the game.

My bias is showing but Ace Combat 8 really bucked the trend this year.

• Announcement trailer with gameplay and story premise during TGA 2025, releasing 2026.
• Release date trailer during Sony's state of play with more gameplay, more story beats, now with solidified release date for 4 months out.
• Topping it off with a PC Port announcement of one of the beloved PS2 classics as a pre-order bonus.

That's a pretty strong, confident marketing campaign, especially when AC7's first announcement was everything you'd hate: cinematic teaser, no gameplay, no story, no release date, game still 4 years away.

That's not to say it's been perfect, they're doing a pretty gross multiplayer season pass and pre-order bundle. Real hat store shit. But otherwise it's been quite refreshing compared to all the other games I saw in the last 6 to 10 months.

They always did

best game reveal was apex legends imo. knew nothing about the game, they showcased it for awhile and then it was available after the showcase ended.

still chasing that reveal high, I wish more games did that tbh