The E3 that wasn't

With the ESA skipping 2022, where does it leave the most important month in games?

As we attempt to pin down the character of a weeklong period of game announcements and demos, there’s a tendency for the collective memory to settle on a single line. “You’re breathtaking”, or “My body is ready”, or “This is how you share your games on PS4”. It’s perhaps appropriate that the equivalent words in 2022 weren’t uttered on any conference stage but rather on a Twitter audio livestream, before the sprawl of events and showcases had even begun: “Manage your expectations”.

A stark warning, especially from Geoff Keighley, a man whose name has become synonymous with hype. And when Keighley’s Summer Game Fest kickoff show airs a week later, it’s clear just how much he meant it. There’s the unmistakable impression of a show struggling to fill the two-hour slot to which it has already committed – something which is, admittedly, a bit of a relief for those of us in the air during its broadcast, as we discover that its entire contents can be scrubbed through in roughly the time it takes to pass LAX customs. Watched in this fashion, the show becomes one long blur of grey steel corridors, body-horror aliens and sluggish on-stage interviews, all leading, surely, towards the inevitable ‘one more thing’ bombshell.