The art of video game reveals has been lost but Nintendo still gets it

A reader compares the gameplay reveal events for Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom and Spider-Man 2 and finds Sony’s approach wanting.

I watched the Summer Game Fest stream on Thursday evening and like GC said it was… okay. Nothing exciting or surprising but a few games that looked really good. For something that was supposed to be the biggest preview event of the summer though it was pretty dull. Dull in terms of its presentation and general vibe (an occasional whoop from the audience does not get my blood pumping) that managed to make most of the games and reveals less exciting than they actually were.

The PlayStation Showcase was exactly the same and I imagine Xbox won’t be much different when they have their event. None of these companies ever seem genuinely excited about their own games and we’re in a weird position where we’ve had one of the best years for games in a long time and yet everything publishers do seems designed to make everything seem as boring and corporate as possible.

I’m sure that’s not what they’re aiming for but that’s how it comes across to me. Publishers have lost their sense of showmanship. It feels like the people in charge don’t have any real belief or interest in the games they’re selling. They’re just trying to say as little as possible at any given time, so that they don’t end up saying the wrong thing and upsetting the internet.

For a while now people have joked that somehow the usually secretive and uncommunicative Nintendo has been the most open of any of the console manufacturers. They also have the busiest release schedule, even though they’re currently winding down their console. (The fact that they also have the most highly rated game of recent years almost goes without saying.)

I would go further and say that Nintendo is also the best at showing off and previewing their games. When I said that publishers lack showmanship and excitement that doesn’t mean I want them doing cartwheels on stage and yelling at the audience, I just want them to seem like they’re actually interested in the game they’re selling and not blandly reading off an autocue.

A case in point is the 10 minute gameplay video they did for Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom, where director Eiji Aonuma sat and played it for a bit and showed how all the new features worked, just like your mate might do when explaining a new game. He was very quiet and subdued but obviously enthusiastic, often laughing to himself and clearly very proud of what he’d made.

It’s also interesting that we found out later that the reason they did the 10 minute demo is because they found people weren’t that hyped for the game, as they felt the previous, more traditional, trailers didn’t really show what it was about – or rather what the differences were from Breath Of The Wild. Which implies Nintendo cooked up that demo very quickly, by basically just sticking Aonuma in a room and telling him to play the game for a while.

It must’ve cost pennies to produce that video, and hardly any time to organise, and yet suddenly the game went from being something people weren’t that hyped about to selling 10 million copies in a week. It’s as simple as that really. Forget your pre-rendered trailers and licensed music that has nothing to do with the game, just have someone appropriate show off the game and let it speak for itself.

Sony tried something similar with the Spider-Man 2 footage in their PlayStation Showcase but while it was okay, it just looked too stage-managed, as if you were barely doing anything half the time and just letting the game play itself. It seemed so sterile and detached compared to Zelda and I think the problem is much more the way Sony showed it than the quality of the game itself.

Publishers need to stop trying to be epic and put a bit more effort into being honest and enthusiastic. I’m still apathetic about Spider-Man 2 even though I enjoyed the first game but I pre-ordered Tears Of The Kingdom the second I saw that gameplay footage.

By reader Lather

The reader’s features do not necessarily represent the views of GameCentral or Metro.

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