E3 is just under a week away, and both Microsoft and Sony are hard at work hyping up their competing presentations. Meanwhile, some interesting information has come up that sheds some light on why Nintendo is absent from this race.
Last week, it was announced that Spike TV, host of the "prestigious" Video Game Awards, would be E3's official broadcast partner. Spike will be airing live footage from the convention on TV, on their website, and through mobile devices.
That sounds all well and good right? Spike might not be known for their journalistic integrity, but more coverage means a better usage of companies' marketing dollars, and thus, a better convention for both developers and fans.
Unfortunately, it's not quite so straightforward. Spike also announced that it would broadcast "exclusive access to the highly anticipated XBOX and EA press showcases featuring ground-breaking news, gaming trailers and demos."
Spike has long been a business partner of Microsoft, working with them to broadcast their E3 press conference for several years already. Additionally, Spike was also the exclusive broadcaster of the Xbox One reveal event.
Still, as the official broadcast partner of E3 itself, surely they are giving equal weight to Sony, and even Nintendo's limited presence at the convention. Unfortunately, this is not the case at all.
Geoff Keighley confirmed that Sony's PlayStation 4 press conference will not in fact be broadcast. Keighley cites a "late start time" as the reason why, but Wii U Daily pointed out some confusing programming choices. Spike will be running several hours of E3 coverage from 9AM to 2:30PM, which will cover both the Microsoft and EA press conferences. At 6PM, when Sony's is set to begin, Spike has instead opted to show the movie Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story.
Vince Vaughn's a pretty funny guy, but is a rerun of a 2004 movie really more interesting to viewers than the first appearance of the PlayStation 4?
This is quite transparently a move on the part of Microsoft to cut its competitors out from reaching general audiences. Avid gamers may tune into a myriad of other video and information streams to get updated on the Sony conference, but for many casual consumers, this Spike TV broadcast will be all they see of E3.
In addition, the fact that EA managed to rope themselves into this (let's not forget EA had a nice featured spot during the Xbox One reveal), seems to point towards a little bit of nepotism on Microsoft's part. Playing favorites with third party publishers this early is bad news for everyone.
The most worrying part though isn't the fact that Microsoft is doing this, after all, Spike has been a partner of theirs for some time. The worst aspect is that E3 is letting them. It would make sense if Spike was the broadcast partner of just Microsoft, but as E3's official channel, there simply is no excuse. E3 is supposed to be an industry event where every developer and publisher has a place to showcase their work. Contrary to what this announcement seems to entail, it is not Microsoft Expo 2013.
Given this development, it suddenly makes sense why Nintendo has opted out of its annual E3 press conference. After all, why be a part of a system that is so obviously skewed towards your competitor?
Alas, I suppose. It seems all is fair in love and marketing.
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