Hellblade 2 gameplay reveal
Alan Wake 2 reveal
Star Wars Eclipse revealed
Wonder Woman revealed
Sonic Frontiers 'reveal'
The Expanse reveal
Arc Raiders reveal
Suicide Squad gameplay reveal
Elden Ring story trailer
Matrix experience shadowdrop
and more..
I think one of the things that bugs me the most about all of these is how much they feel like media conglomerate mashups
it's like the disney megalith franchise cannibal shit
fasten your seatbelts for some SPICY TAKES
So we've got:
- Star Wars Eclipse โ A booster for Disney-owned space pulp squeezed dry
- Wonder Woman โ DC answering the Disney-owned MGU to tie in with their cinematic efforts
- Suicide Squad โ literally see the above
- The Matrix โ big blockbuster tie in, which, neat or not, looks like it loses the allegory pretty hard
- The Expanse โ Another Telltale game that takes a (semi-)popular franchise and gamifies it
Leaving:
- Sonic Frontiers / Movie Promo โ I mean it's video game but given how the video games are doing vs. how the movie did...
- Arc Raiders โ maybe its own thing! but the fact that they use "enlist" in their trailer suggests subliminal ties to Disney-owned gigafranchise The US Military
- Elden Ring โ Thankfully it seems FROM enough but considering how big of a deal they made about it being a project with literal Game of Thrones writer George R. R. Martin, they're still trying to capitalize on that franchise appeal
- Hellblade 2 โ its own thing, a sequel to a good medium-size game! that's really really really leaning into the Norse mythology popularity wave that uh... could also basically be considered a franchise, and got a clear wave-start from once again literal Disney-owned MCU sub-franchise Thor
- Alan Wake 2 โ okay, this one's wild, hear me out: they started considering this sequel when Stephen King books started getting turned into movies again. I give it credit for mostly being its own thing... but there is a specific wave it's riding, coupled with the success of Control
depending on how you count, that's either a perfect split or a wildly exaggerated zero
and then let's talk about other things shown + things that are either getting shows / movies or were literally trailers for shows / movies
- Cuphead โ good indie game! sure! why... why is it getting a Netflix series?
- Halo โ look I don't even need to clarify this point
- Star Trek Resurgence โ oh my god it's literally the people who split from Telltale to do licensed Telltale stuff (I support their revenge but like wow)
- Fortnite โ literally crossover and licensing gigahell
- PUBG โ begging everyone to come back from crossover and licensing gigahell because technically they were first
- Fall Guys โ we're gonna LICENSE THE BEANS in our kinda bland streaming-oriented game, here's literal Disney-owned franchise Tim Burton
- Among Us VR โ okay okay I can't stop laughing about this one. at least it's a game! it is full blown memetic because of itself, not because of others. but there's something to be said in here about how streaming is changing games and how that feedback loop starts to run parallel to shows etc
and what was one of our potential moonshot Nintendo hopes? literally nostalgia for a licensed James Bond N64 game
everything's getting shows and movies and crossovers and I'm sick of the fucking multiverse
some of these are definitely extra sarcastic but it speaks to what The Game Awards is and what The Game Awards wants gaming to look like
I frankly really dislike that Nintendo is pushing for IP expansion and the Mario movie. I think something I liked about games is that they were their own thing, and most "game movies" were destined to not work out. It's not that I wanted games to be inaccessible or their own "niche" but not at all actually niche pocket โ I just wanted them to be, like... about the medium.
or built with the format as a key part of it, you know? fun for the sake of fun that is informed by playing. or challenge that makes you invested in the created world. or saying something important in a way made more poignant by the mechanics or your influence.
games will obviously still be games
but seeing this list of projects and how things have been going makes me feel... idk, like a bit of foreboding and loss
as things stratify, these megagames / TGA games are what get money, attention, and investment, and to compete with that, you have to be part of it
there are still truly outstanding and original indie games but so many of them can't keep up
Nintendo is a bit of an island. a gigantic island with their own problems. but it feels like one of the last big pillars of games as games. and they're committed to IP expansion right now.
I think they'll always be committed to the games first. but I'm a little worried.
that's my (latest) enormous rant, thanks for tuning in