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Rumor: Xbox Has Allegedly Canceled Its E3 Appearance Due To A Marketing Budget Cut

ChorizoPicozo

Gold Member
do they? how was the marketing for Fallout 4? they showed it at E3 and the same year launched it without much buildup, and it sold well... 12 million copies on launch "well"
it was announced on June 3rd, shown on June 14th and released on November 10th with a relatively small PR campaign.

and I feel like especially established IPs often have a blown out budget that's simply unnecessary.
a shorter PR/Marketing cycle ≠ as a cheaper one.

in fact; Bethesda having an E3 presentation for Fallout 4 proves the point.
 

01011001

Banned
Marketing 100% helps. Deathloop probably annoyed you with it's marketing but it kept it in peoples minds and built exposure for a product. I'm sure deathloop would have come and gone without much fanfare without the coverage and exposure even though it's decent.

I disagree. especially the way it was handled, at some point people just tuned out when it came up, never learning what the actual game is, what the gameplay loop is supposed to be etc.


Shadowdrops are nice if you don't need to sell a product. Nobody is going to see a trailer and say "I'm buying that for $70 tomorrow!" for a game out of nowhere that they know very little about. They don't work when you're trying to convince someone to spend money, they work with "oh I'll check that out tonight, could be cool".

like I said, shadow dropping something isn't the answer either, but a shorter announcement to release timespan, with a very easy to digest and thorough presentaion would have been a must for Deathloop in particular.
they only started trying to explain the game in detail after multiple trailers and showcases, at that point most people already wrote it off as a weird time power shooter and tuned out.

you saw it every time in live streams how the whole chat just was disinterested in it after being shown with another gameplay video that doesn't explain shit.
 

01011001

Banned
a shorter PR/Marketing cycle ≠ as a cheaper one.

in fact; Bethesda having an E3 presentation for Fallout 4 proves the point.

Bethesda would have had a presentation either way, that was still the default back in 2015, every big publisher had them, so having Fallout there was just part of it.

most games go far beyond that, big stage show presentation, dozens of trailers, maybe even commercials with celebrities n shit... and often it's just not needed.
 

ChorizoPicozo

Gold Member
Bethesda would have had a presentation either way, that was still the default back in 2015, every big publisher had them, so having Fallout there was just part of it.

most games go far beyond that, big stage show presentation, dozens of trailers, maybe even commercials with celebrities n shit... and often it's just not needed.

i dont remember where I heard this (it was a podcast years ago) they were talking about budget for games.

paraphrasing, I remember this person saying:

"for companies the return of investment is greater for one big 100M project than 5 20M ones"
 
This is retarded. MS will put on their big show like they do every year, spending tens of millions of dollars to have a booth for journos with zero influence is just flushing it down the shitter.
 

jm89

Member
Can we set a GoFundMe to help out Microsoft here?
How about a Phil S onlyfans?
id-buy-that-for-a-dollar-robocop.gif
 
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Shubh_C63

Member
I am no CEO but feels like this cost would hurt them on the long run if you can't drum up hype for your games.

Days earlier Phil reiterated the lack of lineup from MS in 2022.

Go all in with direct events. They are fine to me and hire a fresh graduate from film making schools to save cost on your trillion dollar company.
 

Heisenberg007

Gold Journalism
Unexpected and strange. Seems like a part of a bigger domino effect (industry-wide as well as specific to Xbox) that we've been noticing in the last few weeks.
 
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mrmustard

Banned
Decipher: we can't flex exclusives while we are fighting a war using "saying Sony has all the games"

Don't expect MS or Sony to have any grand shows till it's over.
Finally someone gets it. Microsoft will keep a low profile until the deal is done and Sony does the same. I bet Sony has tons in the pipleline and is also working on acquisitions.
 

Ronin_7

Banned
I always said, Xbox as a division is completely broken... They're at least 30 BILLION in the Red since the beginning if NOT 50B or more.

It's a disaster & Satya Patience is running off apparently.
 
What is xputer & aroged? Never heard those sites. Is this a sponsored gaf thread from the sites?
I kow xbox sucks but...
First, E3 is no longer the first option for the Big Three.
Second, MS can't buy itself an E3 booth? Hahahahha.
 

Lyrical

Banned
Not really bothered if they do this. I just want to see the games. This is currently the biggest issue with Xbox and it’s showing in the financials.

P.s. to those who quote me and say Hifi rush is goty……please dont.
 

Ozriel

M$FT
To be fair, Phil didn't promise anything and used the word "Could" 😛 Don't blame my boy for nothing.

FiE6tlj.jpg
B-but Phil promised us a great 2023.. this was the best year for a big marketing push!
Ironically, cutting out participation in an expensive 3rd party managed showcase vs pursuing a more cost effective, in-house, showcase is the kind of better management decisions we need to see from Microsoft.

But you guys already knew that. Couldn’t resist the allure of Warz posting, eh?
 

Ozriel

M$FT
Not really bothered if they do this. I just want to see the games. This is currently the biggest issue with Xbox and it’s showing in the financials.

P.s. to those who quote me and say Hifi rush is goty……please dont.

Not sure why praise of that particular game seems to cause you physical pain.

Two things can be right at the same time. Xbox needs more AAA games and HFR is excellent
 

DenchDeckard

Moderated wildly
Makes sense, Microsoft always went big and continued to do so while the others made cuts. It's been proven what the masses prefer, just give us more frequent 40 minute to an hour dumps of info in a video format and save the cash for something else.
 
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RoboFu

One of the green rats
So why won’t Sony or Nintendo be at e3?😵‍💫

If you believe this I have a bridge to sell you.
 

SNG32

Member
Honestly I don’t even know why they would even consider it since it’s much better to have a direct. I like that approach instead of socially awkward business people twirling their dick around on stage saying come buy my game.
 
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DenchDeckard

Moderated wildly
So why won’t Sony or Nintendo be at e3?😵‍💫

If you believe this I have a bridge to sell you.


Like the guy in the op said, they have no games.

Which we know isn't true....so I guess these industry guys still love talking facts about MS. Too many snakes in this industry to trust any of em.
 
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Lyrical

Banned
Not sure why praise of that particular game seems to cause you physical pain.

Two things can be right at the same time. Xbox needs more AAA games and HFR is excellent
It doesn’t hurt me at all. But every time I’ve said Xbox needs more games people bring up Hifi rush. I’m glad people enjoy it but it’s not enough.
 

The Alien

Banned
At first I thought it was an interesting tidbit.

But everybody has been doing these 'directs/showcases, etc' for a few years now.
And then I remember just how expensive it is to be a vendor.

This indie dev could have paid a lot for a small booth. Someone like Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, etc., it would easily cost at least $500k if not more. That alone, from a company perspective, woukd make E3 practically unnecessary.
 

xrnzaaas

Gold Member
Big events are a thing for the past - too expensive and you can get the same or better effect by organizing your own (online) events. What I'm more concerned about is that they're cutting jobs and cancelling projects within their teams while they should be trying to use all the new acquisitons to become a stronger competitor for Sony.
 

ToTTenTranz

Banned
Ironically, cutting out participation in an expensive 3rd party managed showcase vs pursuing a more cost effective, in-house, showcase is the kind of better management decisions we need to see from Microsoft.

If only they could use that awesome strategy with game development...
 

anthony2690

Banned
So nothing has changed then? (If you're in the UK)

I honestly feel like maybe they should start advertising a little more heavily.

I've said it before.

I see Sony adverts on TV, YouTube, billboard's, side of buses, literally everywhere.

I see Smyth's toys advertise Xbox on YouTube sometimes, but Xbox should be doing this themselves.

& saw that Persona 5 Royal game pass mural that was on the side of some building in London, shared on the internet. (Not seem it first hand)
 

Ozriel

M$FT
If only they could use that awesome strategy with game development...

I know, right? That would totally ruin your day.

So nothing has changed then? (If you're in the UK)

I honestly feel like maybe they should start advertising a little more heavily.

I've said it before.

I see Sony adverts on TV, YouTube, billboard's, side of buses, literally everywhere.

I see Smyth's toys advertise Xbox on YouTube sometimes, but Xbox should be doing this themselves.

& saw that Persona 5 Royal game pass mural that was on the side of some building in London, shared on the internet. (Not seem it first hand)


They certainly need to do a whole lot more with their advertising. It’s really subpar in Europe, especially.
One can imagine some of this comes from them being a lot more lightweight in the games department than their rivals, but even GamePass hasn’t gotten as much advertisement as it should have.
 

Astray

Gold Member
I think of all the things to criticize Microsoft for, skipping E3 is not one of them tbh.

The cancellations of 2020 and 2022 really hit the ROI of the show.

The bigger thing to criticize them for is missing the TGAs, that is a show with far more prestige (5.2m views on their Livestream) and far more eyeballs than E3, and yet MS elected to skip the show in favor of a showcase that did.. 1.9m

Literally a %60 to %70 drop in viewership that the brand new Bethesda franchises really needed, especially Redfall.
 

BootsLoader

Banned
Sony is making small events and shows and doing wonders. I can’t see why Microsoft should spend a fortune for E3.
 
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