With Gamescom and PAX Prime coming up, the gaming community will swing into high gear once again following the brief post E3 lull. The focus will be on seeing more of what was revealed at E3 and subsequently as well as in the weeks prior.
Many fans had hoped for news on the Playstation Neo or the Nintendo NX, but Sony has apparently again opted not to do a conference at Gamescom so it is anybody’s guess what they will do next.
Bethesda has been taking full advantage of their Quakecon event to promote their impressive pending lineup which included new trailers for Quake Champions, PREY, and the emergence of the first DLC for DOOM and the beta launch of The Elder Scrolls: Legends.
So what does this mean to gamers? Pretty much that companies are working more and more by their own schedules and not feeling constrained to make their announcements around a convention or showcase.
Let us not forget that Sony opted to hold a web event in February to announce the Playstation 4 rather than wait until June to do it at E3 as many people had expected.
The method behind this is that companies can now make announcements on their schedule and not worry about being overshadowed by other companies announcing things at the same time as can happen at conventions.
It also allows them to control the release of information better as it shields them from an array of questions they may not yet be ready to answer and can craft future releases of information based upon the mood and questions raised online by the community so when they reveal more at an upcoming convention they can go into more detail and be better prepared than they have in years prior to address questions and concerns raised by the public.
While I would love to hear the news of Half Life 3, Left 4 Dead 3, and Portal 3 for example, I will believe those when I get a full press release and see them at a convention in person or on the covers of various publications.
What I would expect for Gamescom is more of what we saw at E3 with a bit more hands on for some titles and perhaps, just perhaps some more news from Nintendo though I do believe that the Tokyo Game Show may be where we get more news on the upcoming Nintendo NX system.
As for PAX Prime, I expect Sony to go full on with Playstation V.R. as this is a show aimed firmly at the public and this is their last big chance to get the system in front of the public before it launches in October.
Regardless of what does and does not happen at the shows, one thing is clear we will get plenty of speculation, news, and reactions from the events as the holiday shopping season is only a few months away and this is a key time of year for developers and publishers to get the consumers excited and primed for what is to come.
