Expectations were high for the first E3 presser from Square Enix in three years. The publisher has a lot of exciting upcoming projects that we haven’t heard much about, including Final Fantasy VII Remake, The Avengers, and Guardians of the Galaxy. Naturally, Square Enix showed absolutely none of them.
“That’s it?” was the resounding reaction to the latest display from the publisher of Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest, after a highly-anticipated 30-minute video presentation that left people wondering if someone had accidentally hit the eject button too early. After hyping up fans with a teaser slogan promising that Square’s “next chapter is about to begin,” the publisher put together one of the weakest E3 pressers in modern memory.
Square Enix showed a total of two (2) new games, Babylon’s Fall and The Quiet Man, revealing both with teaser trailers that told us very little. No genres, no gameplay, no information. We know that Babylon’s Fall is from the talented developers at Platinum Games, and we know that The Quiet Man is... We know it stars a man.
Square had already showed off Kingdom Hearts III at Microsoft’s conference yesterday, so of course, the publisher decided to replay the same trailer for viewers this morning. We also got looks at Shadow of the Tomb Raider and Just Cause 4—both also shown at Microsoft’s conference—and a new trailer for Dragon Quest XI, which is already out in Japan.
Oh, there was that new little game from the Life is Strange folks, called The Awesome Adventures Of Captain Spirit. That was pretty cool, right? At least there’s—wait, I’m now being told that was also announced at Microsoft’s conference.
How did this happen? Why would Square Enix spend a month hyping up fans for a big E3 conference—again, its first since 2015, when it announced big surprises like Nier: Automata and I Am Setsuna—only to offer nothing but a wet fart? Compete’s Eric Van Allen suggests that the publisher might be tanking on purpose, Sixers-style, perhaps to surprise us in the future. Or maybe the presentation isn’t really over? It is inexplicable that Square Enix thought this was a good idea.
E3 is often about hype, and expectations, and it’s difficult for any publisher to live up to our wildest fantasies and dream announcements. Nobody really thought that Square Enix was going to deliver a Chrono Trigger sequel or new Final Fantasy Tactics. But if that was all they had to offer, one has to ask: Why did they even bother?