SquareEnix (outside the Life is Strange franchise) has terrible marketing.

Seriously. I have never seen an e3 conference not only be worse than a company's spring showcase, but actually poorly market their games so bad that the hype level goes down. And not only that, the spring showcase wasn't great either, and the Dragon Quest X slap in the face for Western fans during its 35th anniversary stream feels like a huge middle finger.

In the Spring showcase, Outriders ended up being mediocre and generic, with a poor launch, right after a very generic and boring presentation. Their constant Avengers showings keep reminding players why the game bombed. Balan Wonderworld was a laughable flop, laughed at in the showcase. Outside of LIS True Colors, which had an excellent presentation, only Forspoken turned heads.

Oh boy, e3. Guardians of the Galaxy simply put, did not wow gamers. It wasn't a disaster, but its poor graphics, weak looking combat system, and sometimes cringe writing, place it far from a hype game. The Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster was a huge slap in the face announcement with lack of details. Babylon's Fall may be the biggest anti-hype moment, and Stranger in Paradise's trailer was meme worthy bad that actually put off people who liked the first Final Fantasy.

Overall the Dragon Quest stream was mixed, with some good announcements, but the DQX middle finger to the western fanbase, and the DQX offline compromise, as well as failing to show the Adventures of Dai console game in the stream for the West brought it down. DQXII saved the stream, and DQ3 HD-2D looks awesome. For Japan though, they may have knocked it out of the park, DQX is great.

Life is Strange True Colors however, had phenomenal marketing in the spring showcase and still does with this e3. Alex Chen has become a very popular character in the LIS fanbase well before the games release and they may have placated those who wanted a return to the roots with a more Max style likable lead as well as the return of Steph. They outlined the power really well, showed the evolution that the series could take, announced a great looking remaster, and now a Switch version with a reveal that seems to be inspired by fan art. That Switch reveal now has fans wanting an actual LIS anime. There is actual interest in non-fans getting into the series.

As for SE's other announcements this e3.....yikes.

Which games does Square Enix make besides Life is Strange?

The E3 presentation didn't make me any wiser about that subject, so I'm hoping someone could inform me.

@R4gn4r0k: something to do with some guy named sunlord and some dude who wants to kill chaos

Marketing's for suckers anyway.

Marketing matters, even great games that are poorly marketed can do poorly.

Not what I meant.

But yeah, marketing matters because there are metric tons of suckers out there.

TC just wanted to shill for Life is Cringe.

The irony is that FF Origin actually has solid gameplay from Team Ninja. Yet Square Enix somehow managed to screw up the marketing so bad... Or it could be a genius marketing move to get the game meming.

Square Enix has always been up and down like a roller coaster in my book. On one hand, Nier: Automata and Bravely Default. On the other, Left Alive and The Quiet Man. The less said about Kingdom Hearts, the better.

And yeah, I suppose Life is Strange at least didn't give me a headache, unlike their obnoxious attempt at banter in GOTG and whatever that "Chaos! Chaos! Chaos!" thing at the end was. Square Enix really need an editor to teach them something about subtlety.

@texasgoldrush: You're getting as bad as Ghost for making the exact same threads just rewording them slightly. We get it, you like Life is Strange, a horrible game nobody else gives a shit about, good for you.

Yeah.

One big mistake is that it looks nothing like FF1 outside of Garland, turning people off who was nostalgic for the first game. Nevermind the unlikable protagonist, lack of subtlety, etc. And solid gameplay doesn't alone, make a great game, and I heard mixed reactions from the gameplay.

Yet Life is Strange has more Twitter followers than any other SquareEnix franchise, including Final Fantasy and more followers than the company account as well.

Bragging about Twitter followers? A new low for System Wars.

The new low is your ignorance.

The Twitter count helps prove my point. How? Because it shows how strong the community is for a game franchise, which actually helps knowing what the fans want, which helps with marketing.

FF6 Pixel perfect remaster is what I wanted on my ipad pro and PC ugh off you console guys what have you done lately anyway besides complain all the time about turn based and indies they make a ton of cash off ios and steam with these old games.

do you paint your nails black, TC?

Most of the people who've actually played the demo agree that the gameplay is good, comparing it to Nioh, Souls and Devil May Cry. The problems lie in the bland visuals, performance issues and poor writing.

Which will be an 8 out of 10 game at best.

Both Team Ninja and Platinum will learn they while their core combat can be good, you make mistakes elsewhere, than the game really suffers.

And Stranger in Paradise will be compared to Eldin Ring, which is not in its favor.

They could have been released on the Switch, just like the first three DQ games, and also the fact is that SE did not provide enough information about them.

Right now, Final Fantasy fans, and people that are fans of Eidos Montreal and Crystal Dynamics think that the games they want are just not being made (outside the VII Remake). That's what I am hearing in the reaction streams for the SE presentation.

I thought they'd continue with direction first two games had going but with the second game with the brothers and no Tell Me Why, just wondering if these DONTNOD games will just be standalone adventures now.

As for marketing, I dunno, they released them on Game Pass so they have exposure. As for buying, they are getting pricier. I think the more they cost the less people will be to jump on board.

Tell Me Why as well, it's bad enough devs can't make a game with a female protagonist or gay character, not without one half of the social-political divide screaming reverse-whatever'ism propaganda, and these first two games have female characters, possible lesbian romantic interests, and Tell Me Why, trans character, not justifying that many will dismiss it, but that's the case.

Compared to Telltale games, much better technically. But they don't have those licensed properties that pretty much sell themselves.

Didn't understand the Guardians of the Galaxy logic.

In concept, it's cool they just straight up showed extended unedited gameplay.

But, most of that shit was cinematic, cinematic doing nothing, annoying as **** characters trying to be witty and Jake Busey along with many other "MCU off-brand" stunt doubles.

The problem isn't the marketing, it's the game itself. The gameplay is anti-gameplay and the art-direction is more interested in aping live-action movies than it is being a comic book because they think you're stupid as shit and need 2+2 to connect them.

I'm definitely buying Life is Strange for the Switch.

what happened to Eidos Montreal? they made masterpiece that was Deus Ex HR. it was very Deep game.

and now making third person movie game. with more cinematic and almost no gameplay.

Deus Ex was anti thieses of that.

I bet ghost is looking to play Life Is Strange more than Stalker2, but because its not manly to do so, he will never admit it on SW.

Deck Nine is doing True Colors, which is really a follow up to Before The Storm, the Life is Strange game they did instead of DONTNOD. Deck Nine is also remastering the first game and the prequel and maybe the reason why LIS 2 isn't coming to the Switch yet. And it looks like Deck Nine may be the LIS developer now that DONTNOD wants to publish their own games.

DONTNOD is going to target the LIS audience with the next game from the team that did LIS 1 and 2.

And really, these games actually do BETTER with female protagonists than male ones and Max Caulfield is quite popular. Also, the LIS games outsold the Telltale games outside maybe TWD S1, and really, LIS may have accelerated Telltale's downfall.

@NathanDrakeSwag: That game? Ugh.... I never saw its appeal

Yeah, I don't get it either, man. It must be a weird gen Z thing.

@texasgoldrush: interesting, not sure how I feel about that news yet because I thought it was only DONTNOD, but if they seem to be the better studio, guess it is good if they are bringing it back to where it started

Right now, I would not call Deck Nine the better studio, as Deck Nine only has one real game under its belt. However, Deck Nine has an advantage in that they are an American studio doing a game set in America. In fact, True Colors takes place in the developers own state of Colorado, with an Asian-American woman lead writer. They do not have to do as much research as DONTNOD has to.

However DONTNOD is good for the most part. Tell Me Why is a masterpiece, but they need to avoid Twin Mirror type disasters in the future (that game is what happens when an LIS like fails to capture what makes LIS and LIS likes good). DONTNOD has also expanded and has North American studios now as well. So they could come back and do LIS games with more American experience (however, they did nail LIS 2).

But Deck Nine does look to move the series and genre forward, as this is the first open world LIS game that has exploration and side stories.

@texasgoldrush: funny you should mention how the other studio is American because when I played the first LiS, it reminded me of a criticism of another game, Obscure, a survival horror developed by a French studio depicting American teens in high school, and how it is funny because it is French people depicting American teens in probably how they imagine it after digesting our media that makes it over there, and how like all the kids bring guns to school even in quiet suburbia. And yeah, got that same feeling I'm first episode of first LiS when Nathan was waving a gun around in the bathroom. Funny, DONTNOD is French too. Makes me think like- what do they watch over there?

LIS and LIS 2, as well as Tell Me Why do have American writers. The writer of LIS wrote for the original Deus Ex.