After taking a year off due to the COVID-19 pandemic, gaming’s biggest stage returned as an all-digital event. With E3 in the rearview mirror and as we look forward to the rest of this year and beyond, let’s recap the best and worst moments of E3 2021.
The Best
Nintendo Direct: Nintendo fans are always eager for more news, whether they enjoy the reveals or not. After a long drought of no news or updates (understandably) due to COVID, fans were finally treated with a Nintendo Direct in February of 2021. So, it is not without reason that people were excited for their E3 showcase. And boy did they deliver. We finally got some news on the sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild in the form of a 2022 release window and early gameplay footage, the penultimate DLC fighter for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate in Tekken‘s Kazuya Mishima, and an announcement for Metroid Dread, a game in an almost 20-year development hell, and much, much more. Still no Switch Pro news, sadly.
Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase: Besides the Nintendo Direct, the event that made my (and many other people’s) E3 was the Xbox/ Bethesda Games Showcase. Spewing off banger after banger of announcements, it’s safe to say Xbox “won” E3 this year. Opening with the highly anticipated Starfield, the event kept a healthy pace of 70% trailers, 30% awkward talking. Some of the biggest news is of course the 11-11-22 release date for Starfield (and its controversial Xbox Series X|S exclusivity), the announcement of Redfall, and that many of these games will be available day one for Xbox Gamepass subscribers, such as Back 4 Blood and Psychonauts 2. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Gamepass is hands down the best deal in gaming.
Elden Ring:Â While not technically an E3 announcement, gamers were finally treated to a release date and gameplay footage of the highly anticipated Elden Ring, a legendary collaboration from Hidetaka Miyazaki and George R. R. Martin that has achieved meme status. Revealed at the end of Geoff Keighley’s SUMMER GAME FEST: Kickoff Live! event, the eerie and atmospheric trailer likely resulted in a resounding “F*CK YES” from gamers across the planet. (Trailer starts at 1:42:02).
The Worst
No Co-Streaming:Â Even before the pandemic, it was extremely commonplace for games media outlets such as IGN or Kotaku to co-stream events like a Nintendo Direct or other such showcases to record their reactions. This year was different. In a tweet from Nintendo’s official account, they asked fans not to co-stream the E3 2021 Direct. Twitch, who had permission to co-stream, decided not to in solidarity with other content creators. Another odd instance of this happened to Geoff Keighley himself, who has probably done more for the games industry than any other individual. The Entertainment Software Association (ESA), who run E3, allowed certain outlets to co-stream the event, which did not include Keighley. The Game Awards founder relayed the information to the public on his Twitter, stating “out of over 1,300 submissions, it approved ‘less than 100’ creators and brands for official co-streaming.” While someone of Keighley’s caliber does not need E3 or the ESA to get his events rolling, it is interesting to see how this whole thing played out. Hopefully, E3 2022 will go over much more smoothly.
Koch Media: When it comes to E3, fans are fair in assuming that when a company wants to do a 2-hour livestream during the biggest week in games, they’ll be getting trailers, announcements and more. Not whatever Koch Media decided to do. Wanting to show off their new games publishing label Prime Matter, fans were met with 2 hours of mostly awkward conversations, employees saying how great it is to work for Koch Media, and like a handful of actual gameplay footage. Kinda Funny Games even titled their reaction video to this event “Don’t Watch This” and proceeded to talk over the stream in utter bafflement. Trust me, that is way more entertaining than what was actually shown.
Square Enix Presents Summer Showcase: While not entirely a bad showcase (Guardians of the Galaxy actually looks great), Square Enix definitely made some less-than-desirable decisions during their E3 2021 presentation. First off, they made the ultimate tease for their loyal, more oldschool fanbase with the announcement of Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster. I was delighted to see that they would be remastering and releasing all of their first original six Final Fantasy titles. Until I wasn’t; as of the time this article was published, the games will be released only on Steam and mobile, and separately instead of in a collection. Switch fans around the world, I have a shoulder for you to cry on. Secondly, the reveal for Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin. Shown off to be a Souls-like spin-off of the series, Stranger of Paradise’s reveal left fans more confused than anything. We know the villain is Garland from the original Final Fantasy, but not one of the protagonists from the trailer bear any resemblance to any of the original Warriors of Light, who were also namedropped in the trailer. Also, we get it dude: You’re here to kill Chaos. Aside from that, the visuals leave much to be desired. Granted, the game is surely still in pre-alpha, but that begs the question even more as to how they thought it was ready to be shown. A demo is available currently on PlayStation 5, but even that had its own issues. Overall, a very mediocre showing from Square Enix.
Of course, these weren’t the only moments from E3 that were worth mentioning, in fact most of them were pretty great! We’re getting DLC for Resident Evil: Village, free-to-play Halo Infinite multiplayer, a release date for Diablo II Resurrected, and so, so much more. Even a lot of the indie games showcased during this E3 have me more excited than some of the AAA titles, such as Hunt the Night and 12 Minutes.Â
What were some of your favorite and not-so-favorite moments of E3 2021? Let us know!
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