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Who Had the Best E3 Press Conference? Let’s Let Math Decide

Written by Adam Shear

As E3 came and went, many of us are still puzzled as to which company had the best press conference.  I personally have been hearing a mix of people saying it was either Ubisoft, Sony, or Nintendo.  Rather than let my biases for different companies decide the winner, I decided to go a different route for 2012.  I created a grading scale which determined for me who would be the best.  The details of the scale are below, but as you can see, the big points were awarded for focusing on the games and for surprises.  There were so many leaks and announcements prior to E3.  E3 used to be all about the surprises, but this become less true with every passing year.  I also took points off for starting late, useless celebrities, and parts that went on for way too long.  I also awarded more points for first party games, as they are exclusive to the console they are on, therefore, more important for selling the system they are associated with.  Overall, I think the grading system I’ve created focuses more on the quantity of announcements and surprises.

How I scored each press conference:

Everyone starts off with 50 points

+1 for every game mentioned during the press conference

+7 for the debut of a returning first party IP

+5 for the debut of any first party digital title

+10 for the debut of a new first party IP

+4 for the debut of any new third party game

+3 for every trailer and montage shown

+3 for every live demo

+3 for every release date given

+2 for any new non game applications announced

+2 for every new firmware update announced

+3 for the absolute head of the company holding the press conference being present

+50 for any new console announcements

-5 for wasting time

-1 for every 5 minutes late

-3 for any celebrity that does not do anything productive on stage

-5 for any technical difficulties

-50 for the return of Mr. Caffeine

Now that you know how I’ve calculated the scores, let’s see how each company did.  Keep in mind that I am terrible at math.  I encourage people to also calculate these scores yourself and see if I made any errors.  I think I am very accurate nonetheless.

Konami- 71 points

The score for Konami’s E3 preview video is easily the lowest of the six I scored.  The main reason for a lack of points was because there were no new games revealed.  All there was was more information on previously announced games.  They also lost a few points due to the unnecessary Mega 64 video.  When it came to these things being all about the games, I was pretty harsh.

Microsoft- 147 points

Believe it or not, Microsoft did fairly well despite having an overall disappointing press conference.  Most of Microsoft’s points were gained through the horde of new trailers and live gameplay demos.  Where Microsoft could have gained a lot of points were in the games that were leaked or previously announced.  If Splinter Cell: Blacklist wasn’t leaked before the press conference and if Microsoft kept quiet about Gears of War: Judgement, they could have received a lot more points.  The three digital games they announced including Ascend: New Gods, Lococycle, and Matter gave Microsoft a huge boost.  They also lost points through the pointless Usher performance.  Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s appearance actually helped because both of them were giving new information on South Park: The Stick of Truth.  The large amount of apps shown off and Microsoft SmartGlass helped too.

EA- 98 points

EA did not actually reveal any new games at their press conference.  They were all about the games they have already announced.  Trailers and demos galore on this one.  EA is one of the two press conferences to actually not lose points anywhere (the other being Nintendo).  There really is not much to say other than that.  Their demos were impressive and it looks like EA is gonna have a great year.

Ubisoft- 103 points

If Ubisoft were one of the big three, they could have taken the gold home fairly easily.  Ubisoft easily had the most game debuts next to Nintendo.  Games like Watch Dogs and ZombiU gave Ubisoft plenty of points.  Where Ubisoft lost points was for tardiness (starting 5 minutes late) and the annoying banter between the hosts, alongside that Shootmania game.  Without any of those, Ubisoft could have scored another 5-7 points.

Sony- 138 points

While many people say that Sony did better than Microsoft, my grading scale says otherwise.  Sony did show a lot of great games, but their weakness was that they spent a lot of time on each of them.  The God of War: Ascension and The Last of Us demos were both spectacular, but Sony spent around 20 minutes of their 1.5 hour presentation on these combined.  Major points were awarded to Sony’s partnership with J.K Rowling and the announcement of Book of Spells.  Sony pretty much laid out its E3 lineup before the press conference even began.  Because of this, they gained very little points for debuts.  Beyond: Two Souls could have given Sony 10 more points if it were not leaked the morning of the press conference.  Vita games were also missing.  If Sony focused a little more on Vita, it could have made all the difference.    Where Sony lost points was due to the Book of Spells demo going on for too long and for it also having some technical difficulties.  It took a while to get those spells right.

Nintendo- 163 points

Because of their great ability to keep secrets, Nintendo was the clear winner.  This only accounts only for Nintendo’s E3 press conference, not the Nintendo Direct or Nintendo 3DS Spotlight broadcasts.  The debuts of games such as New Super Mario Bros. U, NintendoLand, Wii Fit U, Sing, and more helped Nintendo gain serious points.  Third party debuts such as Scribblenauts: Unlimited also helped Nintendo.  The focus was clearly on the games.  Nintendo used no gimmicks to gain their audience’s attention.  Their presentation was shortest of the big three, but packed to the brim with announcements.

This is the first time I have ever done this scale.  Hope you like it.  Please let me know your thoughts and possibly how I can improve it for E3 2013.

 

 

About the author

Adam Shear

Contributing Writer. @AdamShear. When he's not spending his hours working in the TV industry, he's spending his time playing video games and thinking about them.

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