This time, every year, I take off from work, buy a bunch of pizza and watch every stream known to man that wants to talk to me about new video gams. I love it! I look forward to it! It’s kind of all I have! With E3 dead, dying, or maybe zombified and hanging out like Ed at the end of Shaun of The Dead, things had a chance to get better, but they didn’t. Since 2020, things have only gotten worse. 

According to Destructoid, there were EIGHTEEN streams, and somehow one of them still hasn’t happened yet! Granted, that last one is Annapurna on the 28th of June, and as we all know, Annapurna don’t miss, BUT STILL, this is too much. So what can be done? Well, thankfully, the gaming community recognizes me as the “idea man,” so after Geoff Keighley and the rest of the video game overlords read this, next year’s event should run much smoother.

Step One: Less Streams!!!

I know what you’re thinking, and yes, that is the most obvious answer, but it still needs to be said. SGF introduced me to so many great games over the last week, but the entire gaming community is exhausted because of how long everything lasted. Because of that, I’m worried that a lot of these great games will fall through the cracks. After everything that happened, the last thing I wanted to hear anyone talk about is we’re video games. At this point, I can only hope that some of the bigger outlets covered these excellent smaller titles. But back to my original point, anyone can say “less streams.” The real question is, how many streams is the right amount?

Step One: Section 1.2.6: How Many Streams Should Be Streaming?

Six, but seven is okay, but only if it’s for Nintendo.

Step One: Section 2.6.9: Breaking Down The Numbers

With six, sometimes seven streams being the ideal number, the next big question is, what are these magical streams?

1. PlayStation
2. Xbox
3. Nintendo
4. Wholesome Games (probably my favorite)
5. The PC and Future Game Show (combine your powers and figure it out!)
6. The actual Summer Games Fest stream
7. Devolver Digital (obviously)

Like Moses coming down from his boat, I present these are my seven gold tablets of perfection. If the gaming industry just came together and tightened this week up, every stream would have the chance to be an absolute banger. I know I typically side PlayStation in the never-ending console wars (not really), but I thought how they handled everything was probably the best example of what things could be. First, on their stream, we saw several great games: Resident Evil 4 Remake, Final Fantasy 16, and Street Fighter 6. Then, just a week later, on the Summer Games Fest stream, Sony showed up again, gave us an update on Last of Us Factions, and showed off the remake of Last of Us Part 1. Everyone wins. Sony has a great State of Play, and Games Fest gets to have a great exclusive.

Funny enough, this is the exact thing I thought Xbox would do. Here’s a sneak peek at this upcoming Xbox exclusive; now, make sure you tune into our stream in just a few days to get an even closer look. But instead, Microsoft held everything very close to their chest and showed nothing until their stream. And in hindsight, I’m even more confused about why. When the Xbox event started, Sarah Bond told viewers that the company would only be showing off the next 12 months of Xbox. Well, if that’s the case, why not use The Games Fest stream to show off something that might be slightly further away. For example, Fable and Avowed were revealed in 2020, and we still have no idea what those games actually look like. Even if they’re both farther out than we might expect, any kind of update would have been incredible and made Keighley’s stream even better.

As for the 3rd party developers, while it was great to see Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth and the Crisis Core remaster/remake (who knows anymore), we didn’t need an entire stream for that. The same goes for Ubisoft announcing an announcement, Capcom holding their own stream just to show ten more seconds of Resident Evil 4 and to reveal a Monster Hunter Rise expansion, OH, and let’s not forget about the Dragon’s Dogma 2 stream that was ALSO first announced at the Capcom event. 

So, after all of this, where are we? With E3 announcing that they would be returning in 2023, there are two ways to look at it. The first and worst outcome is that E3 doesn’t help bring organization back to the Summer but continues watering down the month of announcements. The other, albeit more nieve outcome, is that with E3’s return, these fractured reveals fuse back into fewer streams. Perhaps, with a more established name leading the way during the Summer, these corporations will be more inclined to work together. Maybe next year, we’ll find ourselves living in a world where our giant corporate Daddys and Mommys realize that instead of competing against one another to win the week, they come together with one goal in mind: to deliver the best possible experience to every gamer around the world.

Could you imagine?!