10 Most Jaw-Dropping Moments From The Major E3 Press Conferences
9. So Many Betas!
It seems the subtext of this year's E3 was the idea of beta access. Between Halo 5, Destiny, Battlefield: Hardline, Fable Legends, Playstation Now, the Titanfall beta from earlier this year, and the ongoing Project Spark one, it seems game development companies are more than happy to let quick-to-judge gamers get their hands on some software before it's finished. This slew of early-access to unfinished games raises an eyebrow. On paper playing these games early sounds great. One of the worst kept secrets in gaming journalism is that writers often times get their hands on stuff before it's out. Offering players the chance to play unfinished games - like Destiny, which currently has a UI that looks like it was drawn in MS Paint and voiceover work straight out of Resident Evil, seems cool on paper, but keep in mind a game only gets one chance to make a first impression beta or not. Diving into an unfinished game, only to have your progress wiped and mechanics of the game changed can leave a sour taste in the mouth of players who have either pre-ordered the title, or intend to buy it when the game comes out. There's also the thought that companies are costing themselves sales, surely many players got into the Titanfall Beta, played it for a week, loved it, and were done with it, not needing to drop 60 bucks on a title they've already played and enjoyed. When you consider the hefty number of games doing this, it's jaw dropping. Movies occasionally do test screenings with rough cuts of films, but rarely do these screenings come as a bonus for buying a ticket early, nor are they promoted as heavily as the onslaught of betas for next-gen consoles have been. Thus, it appears we live in a strange time, where gamers are eager to play anything they can as early as they can, and more and more game companies are perfectly fine letting their fan-base do their quality assurance testing for them, especially when its framed as a bonus and a cool thing for them to do.
