Oh man. I totally get why it would shut down, but what a loss. E3 will be missed, at least by me.
It’s not an embarrassing moment, but an E3 memory that is burned into my mind in the best way possible is when Martin Sahlin was on stage to introduce the world to Unravel in 2015. The game itself was very charming, but Martin himself is probably what I remember most. He was so sincere and nervous, his hands shaking when introducing the audience to his handcrafted character- it honestly was such a breath of fresh air in comparison to the kind of energy that corporate folks usually carry on stage. He just felt so genuine. And even though he was nervous, his project was personal and he was excited to be sharing it. It was kind of inspiring for me to see honestly.
E3 so often carries the very real weight of being a convention where corporations try to get your money in whatever way possible; sometimes they will even fabricate trailers, highlight footage, or gameplay that isn’t even in the game to drum up hype, because their game is in no way presentable at the moment. I don’t necessarily blame dev teams for doing this, especially when they have higher-ups demanding something be shown off. But it’s really easy for players to become mistrusting or wary because of misleading tactics like this, where people are lying to you about what you’re getting because they want your money and attention. Even when a dev team cries out saying they need more time to work on their game, they are ignored because some people need to make money now. A peak example of this can be seen with the initial launch of Cyberpunk 2077. Who can blame us for becoming doubtful or cynical in the face of this?
But I didn’t have any of those yucky thoughts or feelings watching Sahlin on stage. I just saw a person who put his heart, soul and creativity into his personal project, and he had the good fortune to make his dream project a reality. It melted away some of my cynical exterior to see. I was just happy for him.
