There was a time when going into a game conference was much like being a kid on Christmas morning. The rush of excitement as you entered a convention hall to find a huge array of booths, lighting, props, and displays looking to entice you over.
While I still look forward to the shows very much and even in my press capacity, I still find them fun and exciting despite the amount of work and energy that goes into doing the coverage. Recently it has been harder to be surprised as to what you are going to see when the doors open, as aside from reveals in meeting requests, there have been numerous leaks ahead of time.
I went into the E3 2014 show pretty much knowing everything that was going to be there save for what Microsoft and Sony announced, and even then, we had a pretty good idea about that.
While it is nice to be able to know what to prioritize in your coverage, it does lack the element of surprise.
This year saw Fallout 4, Call of Duty: Black Ops 3, Disney Infinity 3.0, and the latest Assassins Creed game all announced and revealed before E3, which took some of the surprise away, although it will be great to see the games up close. The same can be said for the return of Guitar Hero and Rock Band, both of which will have huge displays at the pending E3 Expo.
A few companies are doing their best to keep the lid on titles as one meeting request promised an “Unnamed AAA Title” that I would not want to miss and some in the past have booked meetings with us telling us what the game was but saying that we could not disclose the title before the show.
I understand it is getting harder to keep secrets with the ease that someone can slip news onto the net now, but perhaps the kid in me would like to stay a kid a bit longer and not have all the big surprise titles revealed in advance. Here is hoping that E3 will surprise me still but for now, I am content to be excited about the great lineup we will be covering.
