The Annual E3 Microsoft press conference thread, 2015 edition

[RancidLunchmeat]

Disclaimer: I have no firm data to back this assertion up, just a shit load of anecdotal evidence.

People who read gaming forums or pay any attention to press releases (people like us) are a teeeensy tiny minority of gamers.

Most do not know about, or care about, E3. It's an enthusiast show, and the vast majority of gamers are casual gamers, not enthusiasts.

I agree with your point. But to get to Tot's point, if you aren't going to show off your product at E3 or "gamers" conventions, then how do you get the "mainstream press" to talk about it?

I think they probably need another killer app, and they need to go back the route they did when the XB1 launched and that's go on the Today Show and Ellen show and Good Morning America and whatever the UK equivalents are in order to get the housewives interested. It was really not successful at launch because as "neat" as a non-gamer might think something is, they aren't spending $499 on it unless it has an Apple logo embedded in the back.

But other than that, how do you expect MS to reach the "Non-fanatical gamers" through the mainstream press if they aren't demonstrating their product at electronic events?

 

[MrFox]

Disclaimer: I have no firm data to back this assertion up, just a shit load of anecdotal evidence.

People who read gaming forums or pay any attention to press releases (people like us) are a teeeensy tiny minority of gamers.

Most do not know about, or care about, E3. It's an enthusiast show, and the vast majority of gamers are casual gamers, not enthusiasts.

Disclaimer: I have firm data and I do not rely on anecdotal evidence or confirmation bias.

http://venturebeat.com/2014/06/17/e3-helps-twitch-break-viewership-record/

Video-streaming service Twitch broadcasted hours of content from the convention center, and millions of people tuned in to watch. That includes 5.9 million unique viewers on the first day of E3. Throughout the whole show, Twitch had 12 million unique viewers. This is further evidence that online video and livestreaming is changing the way gamers get information and interact with their games.

That's just those who watched it live, and only those who watched it on Twitch and not youtube or other services.

It's an enthusiast show, but that's a LOT of gamers.

 

[mrcorbo]

Most do not know about, or care about, E3. It's an enthusiast show, and the vast majority of gamers are casual gamers, not enthusiasts.

It's always been the opposite, actually. E3 is the one time of year when more than the enthusiast pays attention. It's the time when you have (had?) mainstream news outlets doing stories on the gaming industry. That's why it has outsize importance for the industry.

Also, E3 is an industry event. The PAX shows are enthusiast events.

 

[Deleted member 86764]

I don't think Microsoft have forgotten about Kinect, they have rather merged it into a better device; Hololens. I think the actual technology behind Kinect is actually pretty special and unique, it's just that using it as a gaming peripheral doesn't work.

Presumably Microsoft will actual develop Hololens into a whole new platform.

 

[FarticusMaximus]

confirmation bias.

??

http://venturebeat.com/2014/06/17/e3-helps-twitch-break-viewership-record/

That's just those who watched it live, and only those who watched it on Twitch and not youtube or other services.

It's an enthusiast show, but that's a LOT of gamers.

Granted that is a lot more than I would have expected.

What is the baseline twitch viewership? Would that need to be subtracted from the figure quoted to get the actual E3 viewer total?

When you consider the number of gamers in the world though, I'm willing to bet that number of twitch viewers still equates to a very small percentage.

 

[FarticusMaximus]

how do you expect MS to reach the "Non-fanatical gamers" through the mainstream press if they aren't demonstrating their product at electronic events?

I don't have that answer. I'm just hypothesising on why MS did not mention Kinect at E3.

The suggestion of using more mainstream media with fringe gaming relations to reach gamers probably makes sense.

 

[MrFox]

Granted that is a lot more than I would have expected.

What is the baseline twitch viewership? Would that need to be subtracted from the figure quoted to get the actual E3 viewer total?

When you consider the number of gamers in the world though, I'm willing to bet that number of twitch viewers still equates to a very small percentage.

Ah yes, they didn't say 12 million for E3, just during E3.

There's many segments being watched on youtube too, some are in the millions. IGN alone on youtube have 6 million followers.

How small is a small percentage?

??

Sorry, it's just that anecdotal always cause confirmation bias, as we get out anecdotes from our peers, and it's a very bad sampling. If I looked around me I'd find my gamer friends who watched E3, which is why I looked for real data instead.

 

[FarticusMaximus]

I think the actual technology behind Kinect is actually pretty special and unique, it's just that using it as a gaming peripheral doesn't work.

It does work (and it works very well) in a very small subset of a limited number of game genres. As a general gaming add-on, yes it is largely useless.

Hopefully they will keep the IR blaster element of Kinect and integrate it into the next console base (it can't take up much space surely).

That is the truly indispensable part of Kinect for me as I use it run my whole entertainment centre.

 

[Deleted member 13524]

My anecdotal evidence is that all my non-enthusiast friends who play videogames do pay attention to gaming news during E3.
All of them will watch gameplay videos in Youtube or Twitch when a game piques their interest.
I'm not only talking about my friends from engineering college. I'm talking about people who play games with occupations from all areas like music, arts, medicine, tourism, etc.

This idea that most people who purchase console/PC games are mindless drones who will just buy whatever they think it's pretty in the TV or will solely take the opinion of a store clerk is completely alien to me.
Maybe that was the case in the 90s or early 2000s, but it's completely out of touch with the current reality.
And I see this disenfranchising nonsense way too often in this forum, to be honest.

Pewdiepie, a youtuber who is mostly a Let's Player, has 37 million subscribers. 37 MILLION. How can someone consider a non-mainstream thing to watch Let's Play videos for caution before buying a game?

 

[Nesh]

MS announced Ashen and Cuphead are lifetime exclusive on the xbox one during the daily show.

This is sad as I want to play cuphead so much and I dont see me getting an XB1 anytime soon

 

[joker454]

Not core gamers. Not COD and Halo types. There are plenty of other types of games that other people would like to play, but you won't reach them at E3. Go to general CE shows.

Yeah definitely, I get asked about new Kinect games by the girls all the time and alas still nothing to offer them, it really sucks. I also noticed on the show floor at this e3 that it's the most women I've ever seen at the show in the years that I've been going. They were there in force be it working at companies, manning booths, playing games or just walking around, they were everywhere which is fantastic and they are also very much a market for Kinect games as they play games of all types. None of that matters though if Microsoft isn't serious about it and I can't say I saw anything Kinect at the show. At this point they basically need to relaunch it, make a batch of new fresh games and launch it all with full marketing fanfare.

 

[dobwal]

That might be true, but they should still be backing it in consumer shows and wider press away from the gamers if that's where their market lies.

Why?

Kinect, first and foremost, is a technology. MS tried to brand and sell it as a product which made sense when it was released as a standalone or a bundle with the 360 and when MS tried to sell it as device that brought more value to the XB1. But that strategy failed.

Its now an accessory for the XB1 no different than the PS camera is for the PS4. You don't see Sony pushing its camera at e3 in any very noticeable way.

In the end the technology of the Kinect will carry on while the name, outside of its use as a branding of an accessory will fade into the background. Hololens makes use of the technology and the tech will probably be around as long as MS thinks the tech has use as a way to control products MS tries to sell. It may simply end up being no different than MS proprietary wireless protocol for its controllers. A system that may have an internal name within MS, but no official brand title.

 

[eastmen]

They just need to take it onto the Ellen show and show off Kinect fitness. My gf uses it every day , we juts got a refurb with Kinect for $200 at a Microsoft opening event for my mother.

 

[Scott_Arm]

Microsoft should take the original Kinect sports for 360, release it as a $5-10 game for Xbox One and then sell additional sports add-ons for a few bucks each. They should focus on release small games, in that kind of price range, and just have an abundance of them.

 

[AlNom]

ugh, Why didn't they put together a demo of this instead. meh

Spoiler

I want to protect bear-hug

 

[Scott_Arm]

I don't want to kill the bear.

 

[AlNom]

I don't want to kill the bear.

Are they still doing multiplayer? Maybe they should let you play as a bear.

 

[AzBat]

Hopefully they will keep the IR blaster element of Kinect and integrate it into the next console base (it can't take up much space surely).

XB1 has a separate IR blaster connection from the Kinect connection. It might not be able to blast the whole room the way Kinect does, but it does have the functionality.

This is sad as I want to play cuphead so much and I dont see me getting an XB1 anytime soon

Woah, that was a close one. LOL j/k

Tommy McClain

 

[dobwal]

E3's effect on the market doesn't come from its ability to broadly reach gamers. Its a trade show like many other segments of the economy have. There are more than a handful of autoshows open to the public that happen annually across the US and many manufacturers tour their near models and concepts. They don't have a large impact on your average car drivers. Neither does E3 on average gamers. Its doesn't have to because of the way the market is shaped.

The attached rate is less than 10 on your average console and the average gamers spends less than one hour a week. If you ever notice those two stats don't mesh well. Your average gamer spends ~ 1600 hours over a five year period on just ten games? You honestly think your average games spends about 160 hours on each game he plays? Those are just averages and don't tell the whole truth when it comes to gaming consumption.

I believe gaming is no different than a lot of the other forms of media. They all tend to be top heavy where a small minority have an outsize effect on the overall health of the market. When in comes to movie sales about 2/3rds of the US goes to the movies at least once every year. However, 50% of the revenue generated through tickets sales come from just 11% of the population.

How much of the average attached rate is from gaming enthusiasts? How many of those 6.3 hours on average gaming a week is contributed by gaming enthusiasts? Probably a lot and and thats why E3 matters. Because those enthusiasts are buying way more than 10 games per console and averaging way more than an hour a day gaming and basically fluffing the average based stats. Gaming enthusiasts have way more influence on the market then people give us credit for including ourselves.

This is why E3 matters because the minority it does reach have a ton of buying power and make or break games.

 

[NRP]

So called "hard core" gamers already have an overinflated sense of self-importance. Don't encourage them.